A suicide bomber killed 21 worshippers during Friday prayers in a packed Shia mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia, residents and the Health Minister said, in an attack claimed by the Islamic State militant group.
It was one of the deadliest assaults in recent years in the kingdom, where sectarian tensions have been frayed by nearly two months of Saudi-led air strikes on Shia Huthi rebels in neighbouring Yemen.
More than 150 people were praying when the huge explosion ripped through the Imam Ali mosque in the village of al-Qadeeh, witnesses said.
It was the first attack targeting minority Shias since November when gunmen opened fire during a religious celebration in al-Ahsa, also in the east where most of the group live in predominantly Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia.
IS said in a statement that one of its suicide bombers identified as Abu Ammar al-Najdi carried out the attack U.S.-based monitoring group SITE said on its Twitter account. A photograph posted on social media showed the mutilated body of a young man, said to be the bomber.
