Saudis Say ISIS Ordered Suicide Bombing of Mosque
|
Version 0 of 1. RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The Saudi Interior Ministry on Saturday said that a Saudi man taking direction from the Islamic State had carried out a deadly suicide bombing a day earlier, bolstering the group’s claim of responsibility. The ministry’s conclusion added to the sense of alarm that the group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, might be extending its reach inside the kingdom, which has so far largely escaped the violence engulfing Iraq and Syria. The suicide bombing on Friday killed at least 21 worshipers at a Shiite mosque in a town near Qatif, in the Eastern Province. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack in an official statement, the first time its leadership had claimed responsibility for such an attack inside the kingdom. The Interior Ministry, however, has blamed the Islamic State for previous attacks, and last fall supporters of the group released a video claiming responsibility for shooting a Danish executive in his car in Riyadh, the capital. The ministry said in a statement on Saturday that after examining human remains found at the site of the Qatif attack, it had identified the suicide bomber as Salih bin Abdulrahman Salih al-Ghishaami, a Saudi citizen. The ministry said he had been wanted for arrest as a member of a terrorist organization that took its instructions from the Islamic State. Twenty-six other Saudi members of the same organization have already been arrested, the ministry said. Five of those, the ministry said, had participated in a recent attack on Saudi security forces near Riyadh that led to the death of a soldier. Ministry officials have also blamed the Islamic State for a shooting last November that killed at least eight people in another Shiite village in the Eastern Province. But the Islamic State has not claimed responsibility for that attack, or for the killing of the soldier. |