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.
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.
Ramadan Attacks
Islamic State claimed responsibility for a truck bombing that left more than 100 people dead in a popular commercial street in Baghdad on Sunday, two days after armed men killed 20 hostages in Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka. On June 29, more than 40 people were killed when three suicide bombers attacked Istanbul's main international airport.
The surge in violence also comes after the radical Sunni group urged followers to stage more attacks in the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, which ends this week. "That is likely an element in the increase in attacks,'' Griffiths said.
The U.S. embassy in Riyadh said there were no casualties or injuries among consulate staff. The Saudi stock market is closed this week for a public holiday.
Past Attacks
In Kuwait, the government raised security to the maximum level at its oil facilities, the state-run Kuna news agency reported. The suspects in custody had intended to target a Shiite mosque and one of the Interior Ministry's facilities with suicide bombs at the end of Ramadan, Kuna said, citing an Interior Ministry statement. One of the suspects is a Kuwaiti policeman.
Islamic State followers have staged several attacks against Shiite Muslims, security forces and Western individuals in the kingdom over the past two years. In June last year, a Saudi-born man blew himself up in a mosque during the weekly Friday prayers in Kuwait, killing more than two dozen worshipers.
The six countries making up the Gulf Cooperation Council provide almost a quarter of global oil supplies. Energy assets in the region and major facilities in Iraq have been spared.
The attack in Jeddah and the foiled plots in Kuwait "do not represent a sign of a deterioration in the security environment or an escalation in the group's activity and intent in the Gulf," Griffiths said.
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