Islamic State claims responsibility for Shia mosque bombing in Saudi Arabia

NAJRAN, Saudi Arabia, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- The Islamic State claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing Tuesday at a Shia mosque in southern Saudi Arabia that killed one person and injured another dozen.

The BBC reports the incident occurred in the city of Najran, near the border with Yemen. It was not clear whether the bomber, who reportedly wrote a letter to his parents confirming his intentions, was the person killed in the blast.

A social media post by IS, a militant group holding territory in Iraq and Syria, said the attack targeted "rejectionist Ismailis," members of a branch of Shia Islam known as Ismailism who are found in large numbers around Najran.

The incident adds to a growing trend of IS attacks against Shia Muslims in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Gulf region.

Earlier this month an IS-linked gunman killed five people and injured another nine in the city of Saihat, in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, during Ashura, a holy event for Shia Muslims. An IS affiliate in Bahrain claimed responsibility for the attack, saying one of its men used an automatic weapon to assault "a Shia infidel temple" and that "infidels will not be safe in the island of Mohammed."

In August, a suicide bombing at a mosque in southwestern Saudi Arabia, near the Yemeni border, killed 13 people, including 10 Saudi security personnel, though no groups claimed responsibility for the attack.

An IS branch known as "Islamic State in the Province of Najd," a reference to central Saudi Arabia, claimed responsibility for a June suicide bombing at the Imam Sadiq mosque, where up to 2,000 Shia worshipers had gathered, killing 27 people and injuring more than 200 others. Kuwait's interior ministry identified the bomber as Fahd Suleiman Abdulmohsen al-Qaba'a, a Saudi citizen.

In late May, IS claimed responsibility for a car bomb attack that killed four people outside a Shia mosque in the city of Dammam, in the Eastern Province. The attack came just one week after the IS branch in Saudi Arabia, which formed the previous November, claimed its first suicide bombing in the country, killing at least 20 people at the Shia Imam Ali mosque in the eastern town of al-Qadeeh.