(JTA) — Three suicide bombings struck Saudi Arabia on Monday, including one near where the Muslim Prophet Muhammad is said to be buried and another near the U.S. Consulate.
In Medina, revered by Muslims as a holy city, four security guards were killed in a bombing close to dusk at the security office of the mosque where Muhammad is said to be buried, The New York Times reported, citing the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television network. The suicide bomber also was killed.
Also near dusk, only the suicide bomber reportedly was killed in a blast close to a Shiite mosque in Qatif, in the country’s east.
In the morning, in the coastal city of Jiddah, two security officers were wounded in the blast near the consulate. Security officers reportedly had confronted a man acting suspiciously near the consulate and the man detonated his explosives, according to the state-run Saudi Press Agency, the Times reported.
The U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, the capital, said that none of its consular staff members in Jiddah had been wounded.
No group has claimed responsibility for the bombings, which followed terrorist attacks last week causing mass casualties in three predominantly Muslim countries: Turkey, Bangladesh and Iraq. But Islamic State extremists, who claimed responsibility for or are suspected in the attacks last week, have hit the kingdom repeatedly in recent years, according to the Times.
The bombings came amid Ramadan, a month of introspection by Muslims.
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