Riyadh:
Four Saudi security personnel were killed and five others were wounded in a suicide bombing outside one of Islam’s holiest sites, the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, the interior ministry has said.
“Security forces suspected a man who was heading towards Al-Masjid al-Nabawi (the Prophet’s Mosque) as he passed through a visitors parking lot. As they tried to stop him, he blew himself up with an explosive belt causing his death, and the death of four security personnel,” the statement said, adding that five others were injured.
Two other bombers blew themselves up earlier today on opposite sides of the kingdom, which has previously been targeted by the Islamic State group of Sunni extremists.
In Shiite-dominated Qatif, on the Gulf coast, residents said a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a mosque frequented by the minority community. Another suicide bomber detonated his explosives earlier near the US consulate in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, injuring two security officers.
