RIYADH: Saudi police shot dead a would-be suicide bomber targeting a mosque in the Shia-dominated district of Qatif, the interior ministry said on Wednesday. It was one of two attacks disrupted in the kingdom’s Eastern Province since early August, when a Syrian and a Saudi were arrested on their way to bomb a restaurant, the ministry said.

Tuesday’s attempted attack — the latest targeting the Sunni-ruled kingdom’s minority Shias — happened around sunset prayers, the ministry said in a statement. Security officers “managed to foil a terrorist operation targeting worshippers” at Mustafa Mosque in Qatif, the ministry said.

When suspicious officers questioned the man, he tried to detonate a bomb in a sports bag on his back, leading the police to open fire. The suspect died on the way to hospital.

Officers found four kgs of explosives in his bag. “A search revealed a Pakistani ID which is still being confirmed,” the ministry said.

The earlier case happened on Aug 5 when police stopped a suspicious vehicle in Dammam, adjacent to Qatif. Two suspects tried to flee but were detained. Officers found guns and a suicide belt with more than seven kilograms of explosives, the ministry said in a separate statement.

“They were trained by Daesh elements abroad to target, in a suicide operation, Al-Saif Restaurant and Cafe in Tarot” neighbouring Qatif, the ministry said, using an Arabic acronym for the IS.

Initial investigation identified the suspects as Abdullah al-Ghunaimi, 27, of Saudi Arabia, and Hussein Mohammed Ali, 24, of Syria. “They were to implement the operation at 11pm the same day,” the statement said. “Investigations so far reveal that two other Syrians are involved and have been arrested.”

IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has called for attacks against Saudi Arabia, which belongs to the US-led coalition bombing the jihadists in Syria and Iraq. Last week the son of Al Qaeda’s slain founder Osama bin Laden urged Saudis to “overthrow” the kingdom’s rulers in order to “free” themselves from US influence, SITE Intelligence Group reported.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2016

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