Saudi Arabia announced Tuesday that it has arrested nine people in connection with the deadly shooting that happened in the eastern region of the country on Monday.
Masked gunmen opened fire on a group of people in the Al Ahsa Governorate in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia late Monday evening, killing five and wounding nine others in an apparent sectarian attack directed at the kingdom's Shiite minority.
The chief of the arrested gang entered Saudi Arabia from the battle zone in Syria and Iraq, where he was fighting along with the Islamic State militants, reports Xinhua News Agency citing Al Arabiya News. Al Arabiya also said that the number of arrestees was expected to increase.
A Saudi Interior Ministry spokesperson called it a terrorist attack and compared it with other terror related happenings in Riyadh, Ahsa and Eastern regions.
Several Saudi Shiite people said that the attack was not aimed at the Shiite community in Saudi Arabia, but to instigate sectarian violence in the country.
People who witnessed the attack said that it happened inside a Shiite mosque as worshippers were observing Ashoura , a solemn day when Shias mourn the martyrdom of Prophet Mohammad's grandson Imam Hussein in 680 AD at Karbala.
Meanwhile, two Saudi security force members and two suspected gunmen were killed in a shootout in Buraidah in the Qassim region in an operation linked to the shooting on Monday, the Saudi Arabian embassy in Washington said, reports The Associated Press.
The Saudi Arabia's supreme council of Sunni clerics denounced the attack as "criminal," and urged the citizens to "close ranks in standing up against the treacherous criminals".
"The enemies of our religion and our homeland aim to attack our unity and stability," the council said in a statement, reports Al Jazeera.
