interior Ministry says two guards killed and one injured on kingdom's border with Iraq in shooting and suicide assault.
Attackers have killed two Saudi Arabian border guards and injured
another near the country's border with Iraq in a shooting and suicide
assault, the Saudi Interior Ministry said.
The attackers opened fire on a border patrol near the city of Arar on early on Monday, the ministry said.
When security officers responded, one of the attackers was captured
and detonated an explosives belt, the ministry added in a brief
statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency. It said another attacker was killed by security forces but did not specify the number of assailants.
Al Jazeera's Imran Khan, covering the conflict in Iraq, said the
attack was likely to be carried out by fighters of the Islamic State of
Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), that controls large parts of Iraq and Syria.
"ISIL has attacked the border before," he said. "ISIL has long held
that the Saudi royal family doesn't have legitimacy and therefore is a
target.
"This attack is only likely to strengthen the resolve of Riyadh and
Baghdad to strengthen relations, which includes re-opening the Saudi
embassy in Baghdad which has been shut for nearly 25 years, and to fight
ISIL."
Saudi Arabia has joined the US-led alliance against ISIL and is
participating - along with Jordan, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates -
in air strikes in Syria, with logistical support from Qatar. The
move has drawn threats of retaliation from the group.
In a purported audio recording released on social media networks last
month, ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi warned Saudi leaders they would
see "no more security or rest."
In July, three shells fired from inside Iraq hit the Arar area,
without causing any casualties. No group claimed responsibility for that
attack.
A Saudi delegation will travel to Baghdad in the coming week to start
preparations to reopen an embassy, official Saudi media said on
Saturday.
Saudi Arabia closed its Baghdad embassy in 1990 after the late Iraqi
leader Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. It has long accused Iraq of being
too close to Shia Iran, its main regional rival, and of encouraging
sectarian discrimination against Sunnis, a charge Baghdad denies.
source:al jazeera and news agency