State-linked Saudi news sites are reporting that a
suicide bomber has carried out an attack near a US diplomatic site in the
Red Sea city of Jeddah.
Okaz
news website says the bomber died in the attack, and that no other deaths were
immediately reported. The bomber was apparently headed in a car toward a mosque
that is near the American consulate in Jeddah. Most of the consulate's
staff have reportedly moved offices to a new location.
Sabq news
website reported that two security guards were wounded in the attack, which
took place early Monday.
American
embassy officials in Saudi Arabia and interior ministry officials could
not be immediately reached for comment.
A 2004 militant attack on the
American consulate in Jeddah killed five locally hired consular employees and
four gunmen. The three-hour battle on the heavily guarded
compound came amid a wave of al-Qaeda attacks targeting Westerners and Saudi
security posts.
More
recently, Saudi Arabia has been a target of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil) attacks
that have killed dozens of people. The extremist group views the Western-allied
Saudi monarchy and government as heretics. Saudi Arabia is part of the
US-led coalition fighting Isil in Iraq and Syria.
In
June, the interior ministry reported 26 terror attacks had taken place in the
kingdom in the last two years. Local affiliates of Isil have targeted minority
Shia and security officials.
Representative
Image
This is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Accordingly, it is difficult to figure out when to end it. But then, this is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Period.
ConversionConversion EmoticonEmoticon