In this photo released by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), Saudi officials and investigators, background, check a mosque inside a police compound after a suicide bombing attack, in the city of Abha, the provincial capital of Asir, Saudi Arabia, on Thursday, Aug. 6, 2015. (Saudi Press Agency via AP)
A suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt detonated himself at a mosque belonging to a special emergency force in southwestern Saudi Arabia on Thursday, the interior ministry said.
At least 15 people were killed, including 12 security personnel, and nine injured in the attack that took place during noon prayers in the city of Abha, Mansour Turki, ministry spokesman, said.
In an audio recording posted online, ISIS said it was responsible for the bombing, the latest in a series of attacks the ultra-radical group has carried out in Saudi Arabia in the past months.
“This [ISIS] group is seeking to target [Saudi] security men in an effort to undermine their resolve,” Turki told Asharq Al-Awsat via telephone, adding that such attacks “will only make the security personnel more determined to carry out their duties.”
Security forces, the spokesman maintained, will continue to pursue terrorist elements inside the Kingdom and bring them to justice.
Saudi security forces announced last month that it had foiled a number of ISIS terror plots in a major security operation that resulted in the arrest of hundreds of people suspected of belonging to the extremist group and carrying out a number of attacks in the Kingdom as well as planning future operations.
ISIS has launched several attacks mainly on Shi’ite mosques in the Sunni-majority Kingdom over the past months, including a suicide bombing in May at the Ali Ibn Abi Talib Mosque in the eastern Qatif province, which killed at least 21 worshippers and injured 97. ISIS considers Shi’ites heretics.
Prince Faisal Bin Khalid Bin Abdulaziz, Governor of Asir region, where the attack took place, told Asharq Al-Awsat that Saudi Arabia has been for years at the forefront of the countries targeted by terrorist organizations but that “their attempts to destabilize the Kingdom have failed.”