String bombings: Saudis identify Jeddah bomber as Pakistani

The group has claimed responsibility for Sunday’s auto bomb attack on a shopping street in the Iraqi capital Baghdad in which more than 200 people were killed.

The group also considers Shiites to be heretics. The attack coincided with the US July 4 Independence Day holiday.

Nineteen people, including 12 Pakistani nationals, have been arrested in Saudi Arabia following suicide attacks on Monday, including one near Islam’s second-holiest site in the city of Medina, the kingdom’s Interior Ministry said on Thursday. The city is a major spot in Islam because that’s where the Prophet Mohammed is buried.

The Saudi interior ministry said security forces became suspicious of the bomber when he was heading for the Prophet’s Mosque through a parking lot.

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman hosted Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam Wednesday on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr and they prayed together at Mecca’s Grand Mosque.

Over the weekend, three coordinated bombings were carried out in Saudi Arabia, hitting Qatif, Jeddah, and Medina.

The blast happened immediately after two bomb blasts near a Shia mosque in Saudi Arabia’s eastern city of Qatif.

In a speech marking the end of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, Salman warned the youths of his nation against “the dangers that lie in wait, notably extremism”.

The suicide bomber, who was killed and injured two security personnel when his explosive vest only partially detonated, was identified as 34-year-old Pakistani driver named Abdullah Qalzar Khan, who lived with his wife and parents in the city.

A witness said one explosion destroyed a auto parked near a mosque, followed by another explosion just before 7 p.m. local time. Though the attacks appeared to be coordinated but selection of targets – Mosque of the Prophet (peace be upon him), a Shiite mosque and the U.S. consulate – have no linkage with each other.

“Terrorism knows no border or nationality and there is no solution except creating an worldwide and regional unity against this phenomenon”, added Bahram Ghasemi, an Iranian government spokesman.

Pakistan said it will check whether the Jeddah bomber was a citizen.