Al-Ahsa bombing roundly condemned

JEDDAH: The terrorist attack on a mosque in Al-Ahsa that killed four people and injured 18 was roundly condemned on Friday.

Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki said that two suicide bombers were prevented from entering Al-Ridha Mosque in the Mahasin area of Al-Ahsa during the Friday prayer.
“When the bombers were heading toward the mosque, security personnel tracked them. When they intervened, one terrorist blew himself up at the entrance of the mosque and there was an exchange of gunfire with the other, during which he was injured and subsequently arrested. An explosives belt was recovered from him,” the official said.
He said that two security men were lightly injured and that the police were monitoring the location of the incident.
Reuters quoted a witness as saying that an explosion was followed by a gun attack.
The Senior Scholars Council strongly condemned the “heinous” attack and termed it a “failed attempt to destabilize the country and ignite sedition.”
In a statement to SPA, the council said: "These attacks are foiled due to alertness of the security officers and awareness of the Saudi people."
It urged scholars, thinkers and writers to highlight the dangerous terrorist ideology.
Condemning the attack, Bahrain said such terror acts would never succeed in undermining the Kingdom's security or igniting sedition among the Saudi people. It also praised “the great efforts “exerted by Saudi Arabia to enhance the security and stability of the Arab and Islamic countries. It expressed condolences to the families of the victims and wished the injured a speedy recovery.
Pictures of the scene posted on social media showed bodies on the ground.
Maj. Gen. Al-Turki told CNN: “There was a terrorism attempt. The situation has been handled."
The identities of those killed or injured were not immediately released. No immediate claim of responsibility for the attack was made.
This would be at least the fourth deadly attack on a mosque in Saudi Arabia since May. The previous three were claimed by Daesh.
On May 22, a suicide bomber detonated himself, killing at least 21 people at the Imam Ali mosque in Al-Qadeeh village.
A week later, a man disguised as a woman blew himself up, killing at least three people, outside a mosque in Damman.
In August, a suicide bomber killed 15 people in an attack on a mosque for security personnel in southwest Saudi Arabia.