A gunman killed five people at a Shia gathering in eastern Saudi Arabia on Friday before being shot dead by police, the interior ministry said, in an attack claimed by a group linked to self-styled Islamic State (IS) militants.
It was the latest in a series of bombings and shootings linked to the Sunni extremist group in Saudi Arabia over the past year.
The murders, in the Qatif area of Eastern Province, came two days after the start of commemorations of Ashura, one of the holiest occasions for the Shia faith, a minority in Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia.
“As (a) result of his shooting, five citizens were killed, including a woman. Nine others were wounded,” an interior ministry spokesman said in a statement.
He said that at about 7:00 pm Friday a suspect with an automatic weapon “started to shoot randomly” at a Shia hall used for commemorations in the Saihat area of Qatif city.
Police intervened and opened fire, killing the suspect, the spokesman said without giving details about the attacker. “The situation is still under investigation,” he said.
State television earlier reported that the gunman was 20 years old.
A group calling itself Islamic State-Bahrain State said in a communique that one of its “soldiers”, Shughaa al-Dosari, “attacked a Shia infidel temple with an automatic weapon” in Saihat.
It warned that “infidels will not be safe in the island of Mohammed”.
During Ashura last year, gunmen killed seven Shia worshippers, including children, in the eastern town of Al-Dalwa.
The interior ministry said the unprecedented incident had links to IS.
Security has been tightened at Shia facilities since May when separate suicide mosque bombings killed 25 people. Both attacks were claimed by IS, which considers Shia to be heretics.
