The head of the six-nation Gulf Co-operation Council, Abdullatif al-Zayani, condemns the terrorist attack
AFP
Riyadh
Three Saudi guards, including a top commander, were killed yesterday in a rare attack and suicide bombing by “terrorists” on the kingdom’s border with Iraq, the interior ministry said.
Four attackers were also killed in the clash, two in suicide blasts.
No group claimed responsibility for the clash, but Saudi Arabia is among countries that have joined the US-led coalition carrying out air strikes against militants from the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria and Iraq.
“A border patrol in Suwayf, in the northern Arar region, came under fire by terrorist elements,” an interior spokesman said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.
As security forces killed one assailant, another “detonated an explosive belt he was carrying”, killing himself and two guards and wounding another, the ministry said.
In a later statement, the ministry said a total of three guards were killed, including General Odah al-Balawi. Saudi media had reported that a senior commander of the border guard was among the dead.
Two assailants were shot dead and two detonated belts of explosives, the ministry said.
Saudi news website Sabq reported that Odeh commanded the border guards in the northern region.
The statement said the four were “trying to cross the Saudi border”, but it did not clarify in which direction.
Saudi Arabia’s top religious body, the Council of Senior Ulema, condemned the attack and reiterated its support for the government in its fight against extremist groups, including IS and Al Qaeda.
The head of the six-nation Gulf Co-operation Council, Abdullatif al-Zayani, also condemned “the terrorist attack on the northern border of Saudi Arabia”.
In July, three shells fired from inside Iraq hit the Arar area, without causing any casualties.
Saudi Arabia shares a more than 800km border with Iraq and has recently stepped up efforts to secure the frontier.
In September, the kingdom inaugurated a multi-layered fence, backed by radar and other surveillance equipment, along its northern borders.
