‘Saudi Arabia will hit hard on extremists recruiting youth’

RIYADH — Saudi Arabia will hit hard those who seek to harm its young people, King Salman said on Tuesday after suicide bombers struck Islam's second-holiest site and two other targets.

In a speech marking the eve of the Muslim Eid Al Fitr holiday, King Salman, 80, also cautioned young people against "the dangers that lie in wait, notably extremism".

He said the country "is determined to strike with an iron fist all those who want to harm the spirit and orientation of our youth".

More than half of Saudis are under 25 and some have proclaimed allegiance to the Daesh terror group.

The speech was given in King Salman's name by the information minister and carried by the official Saudi Press Agency on the occasion of Eid Al Fitr on Wednesday.

The holiday is celebrated by Muslims worldwide to mark the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan.

King Salman was commenting the day after a suicide bomber in Medina killed four police outside the Prophet's Mosque, Islam's second-holiest site.

Meanwhile, the suicide bombing near Medina sparked condemnation across the Muslim world Tuesday, with even the Taliban and Hizbollah denouncing the attack.

Four people were killed in the bombing near the Prophet’s Mosque that came as Muslims prepared for this week’s Eid Al Fitr festival.

The attack near the mosque — where the Prophet Mohammad is buried and which attracts millions of pilgrims each year — was one of three in the Sunni-ruled kingdom on Monday.

There were no claims of responsibility for the bombings in Medina, Jeddah and the eastern city of Qatif, but the Daesh terror group had urged its supporters to carry out attacks during Ramadan.

The extremists have claimed or been blamed for a wave of shootings and bombings during Ramadan, including in Orlando, Bangladesh, Istanbul and Baghdad.

The Saudi interior ministry said officers became suspicious of a man heading for the mosque through a parking lot.

“As they tried to stop him, he blew himself up with an explosive belt causing his death and the death of four police officers,” it said, adding five others were wounded.

The targeting of Medina caused shock and outrage across Islam’s religious divide.

Shiite power Iran called for Muslim unity and the Afghan Taliban branded it “gruesome”.

“There are no more red lines left for terrorists to cross. Sunnis, Shiites will both remain victims unless we stand united as one,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted.

The Taliban said it “condemns this incident in the strongest of terms and considers it an act of enmity and hatred towards Islamic rituals”.

Lebanon-based Shiite group Hizbollah — which Riyadh accuses of supporting “terrorist acts” in the region — also denounced it as “a new sign of the terrorists’ contempt for all that Muslims consider sacred”.

Attack on Islam itself 

The United Nations said it was an attack on all Muslims.

“The significance of this attack cannot simply be measured in terms of the four policemen who were reported to have been killed, and the physical damage. It is an attack on the religion itself,” said UN rights office spokesman Rupert Colville.

The head of the Saudi Shura Council, Saudi Arabia’s main government advisory body, called it “unprecedented”.

“This crime, which causes goosebumps, could not have been perpetrated by someone who had an atom of belief in his heart,” said Abdullah Al Sheikh.

Cairo-based Al Azhar, the highest authority in Sunni Islam, stressed “the sanctity of the houses of God, especially the Prophet’s Mosque”.

Middle East expert Madhawi Al Rasheed said the attack appeared aimed at humiliating Saudi Arabia, the guardian of Islam’s holiest sites.

“It’s an attempt to actually embarrass the Saudi government because it boasts of protecting the pilgrims and the holy places,” said Rasheed, a visiting professor at the National University of Singapore.

Pakistani behind Jeddah attack 

At the same time as the Medina attack, another suicide bombing occurred near a Shiite mosque across the country in the Shiite-populated Gulf city of Qatif.

The interior ministry said “the body parts of three people were found” at the site but had not yet been identified.

Monday’s first attack happened in the western Saudi city of Jeddah, where two police officers were wounded in a suicide bombing near the US consulate.

The ministry said the Jeddah attack was carried out by 35-year-old Abdullah Qalzar Khan, a Pakistani who had been living in the city for 12 years.

The US embassy in Riyadh reported no casualties among consulate staff in the attack, which coincided with the US July 4 Independence Day holiday.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef, the interior minister, said on a visit to wounded policemen in Jeddah that the attacks “will only increase our solidarity and make us stronger”.

Since late 2014 a series of bombings and shootings claimed by Daesh in Saudi Arabia has targeted minority Shiites as well as members of the security forces, killing dozens.

Most attacks have been in Eastern Province, home to the majority of Shiites in the Gulf state.

Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi has called for attacks on Saudi Arabia, which is taking part in the US-led coalition bombing the extremists in Syria and Iraq. The group also considers Shiites to be heretics.

Daesh spokesman Abu Mohamed Al Adnani had in late May urged the group’s supporters to carry out attacks during Ramadan.