Saudi security forces and forensic personnel inspect the site of a suicide bombing that targeted the Al-Anoud mosque in Dammam on Friday.

AFP/Riyadh

An Islamic State jihadist killed three people on Friday when he blew himself up in a car outside a Shia mosque in Saudi Arabia, the second such attack in a week.

The bombing, again coinciding with weekly Friday prayers, added to the distrust felt by the Shias of protection provided by security forces in the kingdom.

It was the third attack since November to target Shias in the Eastern Province where most of the country's Shias live, and according to the interior ministry it killed three people and wounded four.

The suicide bomber - disguised in women's clothing - detonated his device at the entrance to the mosque during Friday prayers, the official Saudi Press Agency cited a ministry spokesman as saying.

"Authorities have managed to foil a terrorist crime targeting people performing the Friday prayers at Al-Anoud mosque in Dammam," the provincial capital, he said.

The bomber "detonated the explosive belt he was wearing at the mosque entrance as security officials were on their way to inspect him", he said, citing preliminary results of the investigation.

The explosion happened just as the attacker's vehicle stopped at a car park near the mosque, the spokesman said.

IS, in a statement distributed by jihadist accounts on Twitter, quickly said it was behind the attack, which it said was carried out by "soldier of the caliphate Abu Jandal al-Jazrawi".

Security measures  

It said the bomber managed to "reach the target despite heavy protection" outside the mosque.

Friday's blast comes exactly seven days after the jihadist group sent a suicide bomber into another Shia mosque in a village in Eastern Province.

Twenty-one people were killed in the May 22 blast, which was also claimed by IS.

Sympathisers of the extremist group are also accused by the Saudi authorities of gunning down seven members of the Shia community last November.

Activist Nassima al-Sada, who arrived at the site right after the latest attack, said the suicide bomber blew himself up after security volunteers tried to prevent him from entering the ladies' side of the only Shia mosque in Dammam.

After the previous week's deadly attack, residents had set up security committees to search those entering mosques during prayers, witnesses said.

They added that the authorities had not themselves brought in any extra security measures around Shia mosques despite the attacks.

Women were not allowed to pray at the mosque this week for security reasons, Sada said.

As the bomber struck in Dammam, cleric Osama al-Khayat, leading Friday prayers in the holy city of Mecca, slammed last week's "ugly crime" and urged all residents across the kingdom to "stand up against this aggression... this great sin".  

Saudi King Salman has vowed punishment for anyone linked to last week's "heinous crime".

And the country's top cleric, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh, has called it a "criminal act" targeting national unity.

Related Story