2015 Saudi Arabia attack | |
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Part of Military intervention against ISIL | |
Location | Abha, Asir, Saudi Arabia |
Coordinates | 18°13′1″N42°30′19″E / 18.21694°N 42.50528°E |
Date | August 6, 2015 |
Attack type | Suicide bombing |
Deaths | 17 [1] |
Injured | 1 |
Perpetrator | ISIL |
The 2015 Abha mosque bombing occurred on 6 August 2015, when a suicide bomb attack killed 17 people at a mosque in the south-western Saudi Arabian city of Abha. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
Responsibility for the attack, in a city near Saudi Arabia's southern border with Yemen, a country presently torn apart by the Yemeni Civil War, was claimed by a self-described affiliate of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria calling itself Hijaz Province of the Islamic State. [6] [7]
Terrorism in Saudi Arabia has mainly been attributed to Islamic extremists. Their targets included foreign civilians—Westerners affiliated with its oil-based economy—as well as Saudi Arabian civilians and security forces. Anti-Western attacks have occurred in Saudi Arabia dating back to 1995. Saudi Arabia itself has been accused of funding terrorism in other countries, including Syria.
The following is a list of attacks which have been carried out by Al-Qaeda.
The following lists events that happened during 2015 in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The 2015 Sana'a mosque bombings were four suicide attacks targeting two mosques on 20 March 2015 in Sana'a, Yemen.
The Qatif and Dammam mosque bombings occurred on 22 and 29 May 2015. On Friday May 22, a suicide bomber attacked the Shia "Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib Mosque" situated in Qudeih village of Qatif city in Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the blast, which killed at least 21 people. The event is the second deadly attack against Shia in six months.
A suicide bombing took place on 26 June 2015 at a Shia mosque in Kuwait. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claimed responsibility for the attack. Sabah al-Sabah, the Emir at the time, arrived at the location of the incident after a short period of time. Twenty-seven people were killed and 227 people were wounded.
Shia Muslims have been persecuted by the Islamic State (IS), an Islamist terrorist group, since 2014. Persecutions have taken place in Iraq, Syria, and other parts of the world.
The Aden unrest was a conflict between Islamist factions, such as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's Yemen Branch, against the loyalists of president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and later to conflict between UAE-backed and Saudi-backed factions within the coalition. In 2017, fighting also broke out between factions aligned with different members of the Saudi-led coalition namely Saudi Arabia-backed Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi and Al-Islah and UAE-backed separatist Southern Transitional Council and Southern Movement.
The Islamic State – Yemen Province is a branch of the militant Islamist group Islamic State (IS), active in Yemen. IS announced the group's formation on 13 November 2014.
On 4 July 2016, four suicide bombs exploded in three locations in Saudi Arabia. One of these exploded in the parking lots of the Al-Masjid an-Nabawi, killing at least four people. The second and third suicide bombers targeted a Shia mosque in Qatif, but they failed to harm anyone but themselves. A fourth militant blew himself up after police tried to arrest him near the U.S. consulate in Jeddah. Two Saudi Arabian police officers were injured.
The following lists events that will happen in 2016 in Yemen.
On the morning of August 29, 2016, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant conducted a powerful car suicide bombing on an army camp in Aden, Yemen, killing 72 and wounding 67. The attack took place as new military recruits were signing up in a local government school. Despite Al-Qaeda's large presence in the area, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant were the only ones to claim responsibility for the bombing.
The Islamic State – Saudi Arabia Province, referred to by the Islamic State as its Province of the Two Holy Mosques and self-described as Najd Province, was a branch of the militant Islamist group Islamic State (IS), active in Saudi Arabia. The group, formed on 13 November 2014, conducted a number of attacks in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia between November 2014 and March 2017. The group was generally considered less active than other established affiliates of the Islamic State, notably the Islamic State – West Africa Province (ISWAP) and Islamic State – Khorasan Province (ISIS–K). As of 2024 the group appears to be inactive.