Atleast 21 people had been killed and more than 120 others injured in a suicide bombing at
a Shiite mosque in Saudi Arabia of which The Islamic State group claimed responsibility .Friday's attack was the kingdom's deadliest militant assault since a
2004 Al Qaeda attack on foreign worker compounds.
The statement on the Islamic State group's al-Bayan radio station, read
aloud Friday night and posted Saturday morning to militant websites associated
with the extremists, identified the suicide bomber as a Saudi citizen with the
nom de guerre Abu Amer al-Najdi. The station also identified the attack as
being carried out by a new Islamic State branch in "Najd Province,"
referring to the historic region of the central Arabian Peninsula home to the
Saudi capital, Riyadh.
The mosque attack killed at least 21 people and wounded 81, the official
Saudi Press Agency reported.The Islamic State group -- formerly Al Qaeda's branch in Iraq which
broke away and overran much of that country and neighboring Syria -- has become
notorious for its attacks on Shiites, including a deadly Shiite mosque bombing
in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, that killed more than 130 people. It was blamed
for the killing of eight Shiites in a mosque shooting in eastern Saudi Arabia
in November.
The al-Bayan message warned Shiites of coming "black days that will
hurt you," pledging to expel all Shiites from the Arabian Peninsula.
The attack comes as Saudi Arabia is part of a U.S.-led coalition
targeting the Islamic State group. In late April, Saudi officials arrested 93
people they said were involved in an Islamic State plot to attack the U.S.
Embassy and other targets.