(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Prompted by fears of another deadly suicide attack on a Shiite mosque in Saudi Arabia, cranes were lowering concrete barricades into place Wednesday to protect the house of worship.
They were sealing off the plaza in front of Al-Anoud mosque in the Gulf city of Dammam, as the minority Muslim Shiite community prepared to bury four men hailed as heroes, who were blown to bits Friday when they prevented the bomber from entering the hall.
The ceremony comes more than a week after tens of thousands said farewell to 21 victims of a separate mosque bombing in the Sunni-majority kingdom.
Both attacks were claimed by the Islamic State, a Sunni group that considers Shiites to be heretics.
"We are anxious something will happen in future but we are taking care," volunteer Ibrahim Abu Ahmed told reporters inside the worship hall, which appeared untouched by Friday's attack.
Mohammed al-Arbash, his brother Abdul Jalil, Mohammed Eisa and Abdul Hadi al-Hashim died when a man dressed as a woman blew himself up at a rear entrance to Al-Anoud in Dammam, which has a mixed population of Sunnis and Shiites.
Several square metres (yards) of the rear parking lot are scorched black after the blast, which Ahmed said blew the chest of one victim about 100 metres.
Residents said three of the dead were volunteers trying to protect the mosque after a similar attack a week earlier in the nearby community of Kudeih.
The fourth man killed was another civilian who was at the site when the blast struck.
"We have four heroes," said a 21-year-old student frisking worshippers arriving for mid-day prayers at Al-Anoud.
He stood just outside the main door to the cavernous, red-carpeted mosque with a stained-glass dome.
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