Twelve members of emergency services and three mosque workers killed when bomber detonated vest during noon prayers in Asir

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The Islamic State terror group has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in a Saudi Arabian mosque that killed at least 15 people, including 12 members of a Saudi special forces unit, the latest in a spate of such attacks in the Gulf kingdom.

Isis said in a statement circulated on social media that it had targeted the men because they enabled the rule of Saudi Arabia’s monarchs and their western backers, and because they allegedly tortured Isis sympathisers.

The group pledged further attacks in the Arab world, and boasted of its ability to pierce Saudi security measures.

The Saudi interior ministry said a bomber wearing suicide vests detonated his explosives during Thursday’s noon prayers at a mosque in the headquarters of the “emergency services” in Abha, the provincial capital of Asir, near the south-western border with Yemen.

The government said the blast killed 12 members of the special forces team and three mosque workers. It earlier put the toll at 13, but later said two of the wounded had died.

“The incident is being followed up by the relevant security agencies,” the ministry said in the statement, adding that they had found the remnants of suicide vests in the mosque.

The Isis statement identified the suicide bomber with the nom de guerre “Abu Sinan al-Najdi”, which indicates that he is from Najd, a region in Saudi Arabia.

Second Saudi Arabia suicide bombing fuels Isis campaign fears Read more

The attack is the latest in a series of security incidents in the kingdom. Earlier this summer, suicide bombers who pledged allegiance to Isis have bombed Shia mosques in Saudi Arabia during Friday prayers, killing dozens of worshippers.



Those attacks appeared aimed at sowing sectarian tensions in the Gulf states, which have sizeable Shia populations and are fearful of their rival Iran’s growing influence in the Middle East. Isis considers Shia Muslims to be heretics.

But this latest attack appeared directed at the Saudi authorities, who have arrested dozens of people suspected of belonging to Isis in the country. Saudi Arabia is also part of the US-led coalition against Isis in the region.

The kingdom has grown more militarily assertive in recent months. It has led a bombing campaign against Iran-allied rebels in neighbouring Yemen, and border areas have suffered from a number of cross-border attacks.

In a speech in the spring, the leader of Isis, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, issued a scathing denunciation of Saudi Arabia and its rulers, predicting the monarchy’s collapse and describing its war in Yemen as a “final spasm” before its death.