(MENAFN- Arab Times) They are angry and grief-stricken, but Saudi Arabia's minority Shiites refused on Sunday to be provoked by a deadly mosque bombing that authorities called an attempt to promote sectarian strife. King Salman vowed punishment for anyone linked to the "heinous crime," which left 21 people dead.
The interior ministry confirmed the identity of the suicide bomber who blew himself up inside a Shiite mosque in Eastern Province on Friday and said he had links with the Islamic State jihadist group. It was the deadliest attack in years to strike the Sunni-dominated kingdom, and marked the first time IS had claimed an attack in Saudi Arabia. "No, no, no" There is no action" in the form of retaliation, a Shiite resident who said he lost three friends in the attack in Kudeih village told AFP. "They just want justice." Naseema Assada, a resident of Shiite-majority Qatif city near the stricken village, said she visited seven families whose loved ones died in the bombing. "They are angry at DAESH and radical Sunnis," but not at Sunnis in general, she said, using an Arabic acronym for IS. Residents said two children were among the dead, and plans were being made for a mass burial. Demonstrators took to the streets of the region on Saturday to denounce the attack, which residents said occurred despite security checkpoints in Qatif. "This is strange," Assada said. "The government should protect people and if it's not, this is the government's fault."
In a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency late Saturday, the interior ministry identified the bomber as Salih bin Abdulrahman Salih al- Ghishaami, a Saudi national. "He was wanted by security services for belonging to a terrorist cell receiving directions from DAESH abroad," the ministry said. The militant group had already claimed Friday's attack but identified the bomber as Abu Amer al-Najdi. "The cell was discovered last month, and so far 26 of its members, all Saudi nationals, have been arrested," the interior ministry said, raising the number of wounded from 81 to 101. It is the second mass killing of Shiites in the kingdom since late last year.
In November, gunmen killed seven Shiites in the Eastern Province town of Al-Dalwa. Authorities said the suspects were linked to IS. Although Sunni extremists attacked Westerners and government targets in Saudi Arabia between 2003 and 2007, the Al-Dalwa shootings were the first major militant assault against Shiites. There was no violent Shiite backlash against that attack. The interior ministry said the attack against "honourable citizens was carried out by tools controlled by foreign forces that aim to divide the unity of society and pull it into sectarian strife". Saudi Arabia's top cleric, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh, called it a "criminal act" which targeted national unity.
Strife
Saudi Arabia's King Salman said on Sunday he was heartbroken over a suicide bombing that killed 21 people at a Shiite mosque in the kingdom, state news agency SPAreported, a conciliatory statement as sectarian strife intensifies in the region. Salman said anyone linked to the attack, claimed by the Islamist militant group Islamic State, or who sympathised with it, would be brought to justice. "We were pained by the enormity of the crime of this terrorist aggression which contradicts Islamic and humanitarian values," the king said in a message to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who is also the interior minister.
A Sunni Muslim militant blew himself up in the al-Qadeeh village mosque in Saudi Arabia's heavily Shiite east during Friday prayers, in one of the worst attacks in the kingdom in years. The Saudi Interior Ministry said there was evidence of a link between Islamic State's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and a militant cell in Saudi Arabia that had included the mosque bomber, identified as Saudi citizen Saleh bin Abdul Rahman Saleh Qashimi.
An unidentified subordinate of Baghdadi communicated with five Saudi men, now in Saudi custody, belonging to the same cell as Qashimi, ministry spokesman Bassam al-Attiyeh said. "We're talking about a terrorist infrastructure, we're talking about a very broad organisation that operates within the country," al-Attiyeh told reporters in the capital Riyadh. "This organisation starts with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and under him the suspect whom we've mentioned, and one grade below him their combat and bombing wing " under which is the killings and assassinations wing which undertook the al-Qadeeh incident." The bombing in Saudi Arabia has come as tensions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims are on the increase in the region. Some clerics in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam and mainstay of its Sunni denomination, are deeply hostile towards Shiites, whom they regard as apostates. Saudi Arabia is also part of an international coalition carrying out bombing strikes on Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria, and Islamic State has threatened to launch revenge attacks. Saudi and Gulf governments fear that sectarian wars in Yemen, Syria and Iraq where they and other Sunni Muslim allies are fighting groups close to Shiite archrival Iran will radicalize their citizens. Splitting Saudi Arabia into five divisions is a major goal of a strategy adopted by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the interior ministry said in Riyadh on Sunday.
The group aims to help its elements move freely and carry out operations in the Kingdom, ministry spokesman Maj.- Gen. Mansour Al-Turki told a press conference. ISIL is targeting security personnel, he added, noting that they had thwarted plans to assassinate five officers. ISIL's strategy seeks to move the group's activities into the Kingdom through terrorist acts, provoking a state of chaos, insecurity and instability so that it can broaden the range of operations, he added. In addition, the insurgents are luring children through social media to form what can be called "army of children," Al-Turki, urging families to observe their kids closely for any intellectual changes. He noted that the Friday bombing at a mosque in the eastern village of Al- Qadeeh demonstrated integration of the Saudi society, as well as the distinguished coordination among the security bodies that managed within a short time to reveal the circumstances. The ministry had said on Saturday that the Saudi ISIL member had targeted the Al-Qadeeh mosque with an explosive belt.
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