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Five people were killed in Saudi Arabia Friday night after a gunman opened fire at a Shiite gathering. The attack was claimed by an Islamic State group affiliate in a statement posted online hours after the attack.
"A person who opened fire on a husseiniya (Arabic term for Shiite) was killed, and the attacker was in his twenties," reported government-run news channel, Al Ekhbariya TV.
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This young man in Saudi hailed as a hero after protecting a child from IS gunman who killed 5 at a Shia gathering. pic.twitter.com/3EfeKBlgQy
— Rori Donaghy (@roridonaghy86)
October 16, 201
A resident of the area told Reuters the assailant approached a Shiite meeting hall in the Saihat area of the eastern Qatif city in a taxi but was stopped at a checkpoint manned by volunteers protecting the site.
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"With the approval of God Almighty, the soldier of the caliphate Shuja al-Dawsari, may God accept him, set his Kalashnikov upon one of the apostate polytheists' temples," a group calling itself Islamic State-Bahrain said in a statement. It further warned that "infidels will not be safe in the island of Mohammed,” referring to Saudi Arabia.
Large protest in Saudi's Saihat City now, after earlier deadly shooting by suspected IS gunman on Shia gathering. pic.twitter.com/YelpNfcsSH
— Rori Donaghy (@roridonaghy86)
October 16, 201
An Interior Ministry spokesman said the suspect was killed when police intervened and opened fire. The spokesman did not provide any further details. "The situation is still under investigation," he said.
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In July, Saudi authorities said they had arrested 431 Islamic State group suspects and had foiled plots to attack places of worship and security forces. That came after Shiite leaders accused the leaders of the Sunni-majority kingdom of not doing enough to protect their community.
In May, 25 people were killed in two separate suicide bombings on the Shiite mosques. And in August a suicide bomber killed at least 15 people in an attack on a mosque used by members of a local security force in southwest Saudi Arabia.
The Islamic State group, an ultra-extremist Sunni group, views Shiite as apostates and has been targeting the community in Syria and Iraq. While Saudi Arabia and other monarchies in the Arabian peninsula are led by Sunnis, the extremist group has come out against their governments.
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