(MENAFN- Arab Times) Tens of thousands of Saudi Shiites gathered Monday for a mass funeral for the victims of a mosque bombing authorities called an attempt by Sunni extremists to sow sectarian strife. Mourners from the kingdom's minority crowded the streets in the mainly Shiite Qatif district of Eastern Province to show their respect for the 21 dead, who included two children. A Shiite imam led the funeral prayer in a marketplace under a cloudless sky, as a breeze carried the fragrance of the herb placed on prayer mats upon which the bodies lay.
The bodies were then carried on litters decked with flowers in a final procession towards the cemetery in Kudeih village, where the attack took place on Friday. Everybody "is very much anxious to participate " to express their support," one organiser said ahead of the funeral, asking not to be named. The suicide bombing, during the main weekly Muslim prayers in Kudeih, was 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.
Asked whether he feared a new attack during the funeral, the organiser said: "Nobody can predict anything. We have taken all precautions in coordination with local authorities." He added that tens of thousands of people had volunteered to act as crowd marshals for the ceremony. He said safety concerns had prompted organisers to ask women to stay away from the funeral but that a separate area had been set up for them to offer condolences after the burials. Black flags of mourning flew in the streets of Qatif, where police mounted checkpoints while volunteer marshals in bright yellow and orange vests inspected vehicles.
Meanwhile, the Saudi Cabinet on Monday strongly condemned an attack that targeted a mosque east of the Kingdom on Friday, reiterating Riyadh's unyielding position against terrorism. Some 22 people were killed and scores wounded when a Saudi who belonged to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) detonated an explosive belt at a mosque packed with worshippers in the eastern province of Al-Qatif. "The enormity of the crime of the heinous terrorist attack targeted a mosque in Qudayh village is contrary to Islamic and human values," King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud told the meeting which he chaired. He emphasized that the Kingdom's efforts "will never cease at any time to fight the deviant thought, confront the terrorists and wipe out their hotbeds." "Every participant, planner, supporter, collaborator, or sympathizer with this crime shall be held accountable, tried and punished," King Salman noted.
The Cabinet condemned "the heinous crime that targeted the mosque and resulted in bloodshed and killing of innocents," considering it "an unjust terrorist aggression." In the meantime, it commended efforts by the security authorities that rapidly detected the perpetrator and arrested most members of the terrorist cell to which he belongs, and which received directives from the ISIL terrorist organization.
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