Saudi Arabia: Suicide Bomber Kills 4 Police In Madinah; Worshipers Safe

Normalcy prevailed over Madinah as the region’s Governor, Prince Faisal bin Salman, prayed amongst hundreds of thousands of worshipers at the Prophet’s Mosque hours after a suicide bomber attacked a police post outside the holy mosque.

The blast came after mosques were targeted in both Jeddah and Qatif.

Four policemen were killed and five others were injured in Madinah when a suicide bomber struck in the vicinity of a police post outside the Prophet’s Mosque, according to the interior ministry.

The bombing took place in a parking lot between the city court and the mosque, visited by millions every year.

When security officials became suspicious of an individual who was heading to the Prophet’s Mosque they approached him resulting in him triggering his explosive belt killing four of the officers and injuring others.

Videos circulated on social media showed a car burning and at least two security officers lying on the ground and two others lay crumpled near a burning car. The bomber also died in the attack, which took place at the time of iftar. No worshipper was injured in the attack, said a press correspondent from the scene.

Earlier, in Qatif, two suicide bombers blew themselves up one after the other outside the Faraj Al-Omran Mosque. No casualties were reported. A witness said a car bomb was detonated near the mosque, which was followed by a suicide attack just before 7 p.m. Police have launched an investigation into the attack.

Before that at 2:15 a.m., a suicide bomber blew himself up near the US Consulate in Jeddah. Security officers confronted him as he moved suspiciously at a parking lot of the Dr. Soliman Fakeih Hospital. Two policemen were wounded lightly in the attack.

The bomber was named as Abdullah Qalzar Khan, an expat from Pakistan, who lived in Jeddah with his wife and her parents and came to the country 12 years ago to work as a private driver.

Photos taken from the scene showed the bomber’s body dismembered by the blast.

No claims of responsibility for any of the attacks have been made.

Daesh has carried out a series of bombing and shooting attacks in Saudi Arabia since 2014 that have killed scores of people, mostly Shiites and members of the security services. In January, a suicide bomber attacked a mosque in Al-Ahsa, killing four people before worshippers disarmed and tied up an accomplice who had shot at them.

In October last year, a gunman opened fire on worshippers in Qatif, killing five people before he was shot dead by police.