{"id":4216,"date":"2016-07-04T19:35:24","date_gmt":"2016-07-04T19:35:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/box5917.temp.domains\/~iriacom\/\/news\/?p=4216"},"modified":"2016-07-05T09:31:53","modified_gmt":"2016-07-05T09:31:53","slug":"saudi-arabia-rocked-by-multiple-explosions-4-reported-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/saudi-arabia-rocked-by-multiple-explosions-4-reported-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"Saudi Arabia rocked by multiple explosions, 4 reported dead"},"content":{"rendered":"

Attackers kill four at Medina mosque housing Prophet Muhammad\u2019s tomb and also strike outside the US consulate in Jeddah and in Shia-majority Qatif<\/strong><\/p>\n

Four security officers have been killed and five others wounded in a suicide attack outside one of Islam’s holiest sites, Saudi Arabia’s interior ministry said.<\/p>\n

The bombing at the Prophet’s Mosque in the city of Medina was the third attack on Monday, following blasts in the cities of Jeddah and Qatif.<\/p>\n

“Four security guards were martyred and five others wounded as a result of their opposition to the suicide attacker who detonated explosives near them as he was on his way to the mosque,” the ministry said on Twitter<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The blast struck moments before sunset prayers when people were breaking their fast inside the mosque.\u00a0The mosque, which is also known as Al-Masjid an-Nabawi, is visited by pilgrims from around the world during the final days of the fasting month of Ramadan.<\/p>\n

The blasts in Saudi Arabia followed a bloody week in which terrorist attacks caused mass casualties in biggest cities of three Muslim countries: Turkey<\/a><\/span>, Bangladesh<\/a><\/span> and Iraq<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Soon after the blast in Medina, a video circulated on social media showed a car burning and at least two security officers were seen lying on the open ground and two others lay crumpled near a burning car.<\/span><\/p>\n

Security forces have cordoned off the Prophet’s Mosque and worshipers were not allowed to get in or out.<\/p>\n

The blast followed two others in Qatif, a city that is home to many of the kingdom’s Shia\u00a0Muslims. The blast appeared to target a Shia mosque. The attacker was killed but no other casualties were reported.<\/p>\n

Earlier during the day, a suicide bomber was killed and two people were wounded in a blast near the U.S. consulate in Saudi Arabia’s city of Jeddah<\/a><\/span> on Monday, state TV said, the first bombing in years to attempt to target foreigners in the kingdom.<\/p>\n

The incidents occurred shortly before the beginning of the Eid holiday, which follows the end of the holy month of Ramadan.<\/p>\n

It was the first bombing in years to attempt to target foreigners in the kingdom. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the Jeddah attack.<\/p>\n

ISIS has carried out a series of bombing and shooting attacks in Saudi Arabia since mid-2014 that have killed scores of people, mostly members of the Shi’ite Muslim minority and security services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Attackers kill four at Medina mosque housing Prophet Muhammad\u2019s tomb and also strike outside the US consulate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4217,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[44,1],"tags":[214,101,11],"class_list":["post-4216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east","category-news","tag-bombing","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-terrorism"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/saudi-bombing-4July2016.jpg?fit=690%2C371&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jJWb-160","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4216"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4225,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4216\/revisions\/4225"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}