Saudi Arabia foils attack on Islam’s holiest site

Riyadh, June 24 (IANS) Saudi security forces thwarted a plot to attack the Grand Mosque in Makkah, home to the holiest site in Islam, exchanging gunfire with one of the suspects who blew himself up inside a home, the Interior Ministry said on Saturday.

The ministry described the plot as part of "self-serving schemes managed from abroad".

The Interior Ministry said it launched raids in Jeddah as well as two areas in Makkah itself, including the Ajyad Al-Masafi neighbourhood, located near the Grand Mosque.

Five people, including a woman, were arrested in security operations in Makkah, the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya news website said, citing interior ministry security spokesman Mansour al-Turki.

Five security force members and six other people were injured, the report said.

Turki said police "foiled the terrorist plan that targeted the security of the Grand Mosque, pilgrims and worshippers".

Since late 2014 Saudi Arabia has faced periodic bombings and shootings claimed by the Islamic State.

Near the end of Ramadan last year in the Saudi city of Medina four security officers died in an explosion close to Islam's second holiest site, the Prophet's Mosque.

Most of the targets in Saudi Arabia have been the Shiite minority and security forces, with dozens of people killed.

IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has called for attacks against Saudi Arabia, a member of the US-led coalition battling the group in Syria and Iraq.

Since July last year police have arrested around 40 people, including Saudis and Pakistanis, for alleged extremist links.

The Grand Mosque has been the target of militants before also. In 1979, a group seized the mosque, home to the cube-shaped Kaaba that Muslims pray towards five times a day, for two weeks.