The jihadist ISIS group has claimed responsibility for an attack on a Shiite-Muslim mosque in the Gulf Arab state of Oman that killed six people Monday evening.
The Sunni-Muslim Islamist group said in a statement late on Tuesday that three of its “suicide attackers” fired on worshippers at the mosque and exchanged gunfire with Omani security forces until morning, Reuters reported. The group also published what it said was a video of the attack on the Telegram messaging app.
The incident has shocked a country that avoided the sectarian violence that gripped some Middle Eastern states, including some of Oman’s oil-rich neighbors, after ISIS declared a state in Iraq and Syria a decade ago and sought to expand throughout the Arabian Peninsula. The group considers Shiites heretics.
The Royal Oman Police said on Tuesday that nine people were killed in the shooting in the capital Muscat’s Wadi al-Kabir district, including the three perpetrators and a policeman. More than two dozen people of various nationalities were injured, including four Omani first responders, the police said. It didn’t identify a motive for the attack or reveal the identity of the attackers.
The attack took place at the Imam Ali mosque, according to video obtained by Reuters and geolocated by CNN, during Ashura, the 10th day of the Islamic month of Muharram, which holds particular significance for Shiite Muslims.
The oil-producing nation is one of the most stable in the Middle East and is becoming an emerging regional tourism destination as the government promotes the sector to diversify its economy away from hydrocarbons.
Credit: cnn.com
