Last night, Medina, one of the holiest cities in Saudi Arabia was placed under high alert after a suicide bomber killed four security officials and injured five others.
As per reports, the bomber detonated his explosives after being stopped outside the Prophet’s Mosque. Medina is the second holiest city of Islam, and also houses the mosque which serves as the burial place of Prophet Muhammad.
Qari Ziyaad Patel, 36, from South Africa, who was in the mosque, told the Associated Press news agency that people present at the mosque first thought it was the sound of the cannon fire that marks the breaking of fast.
“The ground shook,” he said, adding, “The vibrations were very strong. It sounded like a building imploded.”
Earlier to this, two other attacks took place at Saudi itself. Quatif, an eastern city in Saudi which is home to many Shia Muslims was under attack as well. The blast appeared to target a local Shia mosque. The attacker was killed but no other casualties were reported.
A suspected suicide bomber also died after detonating a device near the US consulate in the city of Jeddah in the early hours of Monday. Two security officers were injured as they tackled the man, albeit there were no casualties.
A series of attacks have taken place in the past one week:
- Ataturk, an airport in Istanbul was attacked on 28th June killing 45 people
- A café in Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh was attacked on 1st July that killed around 20 hostages and 2 policemen
