Saudi ambassador to United Kingdom complains of lack of respect

The kingdom has been hit by a spate of deadly shooting and bomb attacks, many of them laid at the door of Islamic State.

The attack happened when a person wearing an explosives belt detonated his or her explosives when worshippers began leaving the al-Mashhad mosque at the conclusion of evening prayers.

But pressure to consider such measures has increased this year as low oil prices have slashed the revenues of the world’s top crude exporting country, saddling it with a state budget deficit that is expected to be well over $100 billion this year. Shells fired from Yemen have landed in Najran, and Saudi troops on the border have skirmished with rebels since the coalition in March began air strikes against the Huthis.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast.

An Interior Ministry spokesman said several victims were being treated in hospitals.

The most recent happened in August when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a mosque inside a police compound in the southern city of Abha, a few 350 miles south of the holy city of Mecca.

About half of Najran’s population belongs to the Shia community. He said mutual respect was breached when opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn lobbied against the contract, linking it to Saudi Arabia’s rights record.

ISIS is strongly opposed to the Gulf Arab rulers and has urged young Saudi Sunnis to attack targets including Shias.

The attack targeted “rejectionist Ismailis”, said a statement from ISIS which was posted on Twitter, referring to a Shia sect who are a minority in the Sunni majority kingdom.

In June, four Shiites died preventing a suicide bomber from entering the hall of Al-Anoud mosque in Dammam city.

Peaceful demonstrations erupted in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province in February 2011, with protesters demanding reforms, freedom of expression, the release of political prisoners, and an end to widespread discrimination against the people of the oil-rich region.

“Unfortunately for Saudi I think the ISIL is going to repeat such treacherous acts”. It is a ploy to gain attention.