Bloomberg — A suicide bomber blew himself up near the U.S. consulate in Saudi Arabia's main commercial hub and Kuwait bolstered security at oil installations, amid a wave of terrorist attackes that killed dozens in the Middle East and beyond over the past two weeks.

  It wasn't clear whether the U.S. mission in Jeddah was the target. Two security guards were slightly wounded in the explosion early Monday at a hospital parking lot near the consulate, local media reported. Major General Mansour Al-Turki, a Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman, told Al Arabiya television the attacker was a foreigner working in the kingdom. The area had other potential targets, including a mosque, he said.

In Kuwait, authorities said they arrested six people after foiling an Islamic State plot.

The Saudi blast follows a string of attacks in Iraq, Bangladesh and Turkey as Islamic State's losses mount in Syria, Iraq and Libya. Last month, Iraqi forces retook the city of Fallujah, setting the stage for an offensive on Mosul, Islamic State's main stronghold in OPEC's second-biggest producer.

"The incident in Jeddah reflects the potential for attacks against Western-linked interests, particularly as Islamic State suffers setbacks in Iraq and Syria, but the group is likely to continue to prioritize attacks against the Shiite minority and security forces in Saudi Arabia," Graham Griffiths, an analyst at Control Risks in Dubai, said by phone.

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