Four people have been killed in eastern Saudi Arabia after a suicide bomber tried to enter a Shiite Islamic mosque during Friday prayers. Islamic State (ISIS) has reportedly taken responsibility for the attack. It is the second attack of its kind in a week after another suicide bomber attacked a Shiite Islamic mosque in the eastern province of Qatif.
A car exploded outside the Imam Hussein Shiite mosque in the Al Anoud district of the city of Dammam. However, security officials, cited by local media, say the attackers failed to enter the building itself, according to media reports.
PHOTOS: Images showing the scene of the explosion in #Dammam, (via @usamani1 and @QatifDirect) — @Miriam411 pic.twitter.com/T4J0XlqisZ
— Conflict News (@rConflictNews) May 29, 2015
ISIS acknowledges it is trying to stir sectarian confrontation as a way of hastening the overthrow of the ruling Al Saud family, and has urged young Saudi Sunnis in the kingdom to attack targets including Shia Muslims. Despite this, ISIS, who claims to be a Sunni group, has annihilated entire Sunni Muslim communities in it’s efforts to destabilize Syria and Iraq. Many are calling this strategy by ISIS as «chickens coming home to roost» as Saudi Arabia and several Gulf states including Qatar funded and armed the terror group in it’s early stages to topple Shiite governments in Iraq and Syria. ISIS is seen by many Muslims as more politically motivated than religious as ISIS engages in sex slavery, selling oil to the United States and other Western nations, and raping of children.
According to SPA, an interior ministry spokesman says security forces became suspicious of a car parked near the mosque in Dammam. The vehicle exploded as they walked towards it, killing four people and setting cars beside it on fire. One of those killed was suspected of being the driver.
Residents and community members said young men conducting searches at the mosque began to suspect someone trying to enter the building dressed in women’s clothes and stopped him. They said the bomber turned away and exploded between cars, killing at least two people.
Below is a photo of two brave young men who were conducting searches at the entrance of the mosque and noticed something suspicious about what had appeared to be a man wearing female attire. According to eye witnesses, the young men ran towards the suicide bomber and wrapped their arms around him, as to take their own life over the lives of others at the mosque at the hands of the suicide bomber.
This picture was taken right before the Friday prayers began, minutes before they both sacrificed their lives to save the hundreds of worshippers at the mosque. The two young men were cousins, named Mohammed Ibn Isa and Abed Al-Jalal Alarbesh.