RIYADH: A deadly suicide bombing near Islam’s second-holiest site in the Saudi city of Madina sparked condemnation across the Muslim world on Tuesday, with both the Taliban and Hezbollah denouncing the attack.

Four people were killed in the bombing near Masjid-i-Nabawi — or the mosque of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) — that came as Muslims prepared for the festival of Eidul Fitr.

The Saudi interior ministry said officers became suspicious of a man heading for the mosque through a parking lot.

“As they tried to stop him, he blew himself up with an explosive belt causing his death and the death of four police,” it said, adding that five others were wounded.

The targeting of Madina caused shock and outrage across the entire Muslim world.

Iran called for Muslim unity and the Afghan Taliban branded it “gruesome”.

“There are no more red lines left for terrorists to cross. Sunnis, Shias will both remain victims unless we stand united as one,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted.

The Taliban said they “condemn this incident in the strongest of terms and consider it an act of enmity and hatred towards Islamic rituals.”

Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah denounced it as “a new sign of the terrorists’ contempt for all that Muslims consider sacred.”

The head of the Saudi Shura Council, Saudi Arabia’s main government advisory body, called it “unprecedented”. “This crime, which causes goose bumps, could not have been perpetrated by someone who had an atom of belief in his heart,” said Abdullah al-Sheikh.

Monday’s first attack happened in Jeddah, where two police officers were wounded in a suicide bombing near the US consulate.

The ministry said the attack was carried out by 35-year-old Abdullah Gulzar Khan, a Pakistani who had been living in the city for 12 years.

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2016