At the Imam Ali Shia mosque
in the village of al Qadeeh, which is roughly 400km (250m) to the east of
Riyadh, packed with worshippers for Friday prayers; a suicide bomber has blown
himself up killing around twenty people and wounding more than fifty.
One witness described a
huge explosion, about 150 people were believed to be praying at the mosque.
A medical official at a
local hospital said that "around 20 people" were killed and more than
50 are wounded, some seriously.
He said that a number of
other people had been treated and sent home.
"We were doing the
first part of the prayers when we heard the blast," Kamal Jaafar Hassan,
one worshipper, told Reuters by telephone from the scene.
The Saudi state news agency
confirmed an explosion had happened at a mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia and
said more details would be provided later.
Pictures posted on social
media showed bloodied victims being taken away on stretchers.
No one immediately claimed
responsibility for the bombing, the first to target Shia Muslims in Saudi
Arabia since November, when gunmen killed at least eight people in an attack on
a religious anniversary celebration, also in the east of the country.
In Yemen, a bomb at a
Houthi mosque in the capital Sanaa on Friday was claimed by Islamic State.
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