2015 Saihat shooting

2015 Saihat Shooting
Location	Saihat, Qatif, Saudi Arabia
Date	16 October 2015
Target	Shia Muslims
Weapons	Kalashnikov rifle
Deaths	6 (including the attacker)[1]
Injured	9[2]
Perpetrator	ISIS
Motive	Anti-Shi'ism

The 2015 Saihat Shooting was a terrorist attack by the Islamic State in the city of Saihat, Qatif, in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. A resident claimed that the assailant approached a Hussainiya in a taxi, but was stopped at a checkpoint manned by volunteers protecting the site.^[3] The suspect started shooting randomly inside the building, before the police intervened and killed the suspect.^[4]

Attack

A resident stated that the assailant approached the Hussainiya in a taxi but was stopped at a checkpoint manned by volunteers protecting the site.^[5] A ministry interior spokesmen stated that at about 7 pm a suspect with an automatic weapon "started to shoot randomly" at a Shiite Hussainiya l used for commemorations in Saihat. As a result of his shooting, five citizens (four men and one woman) were killed. Nine others were wounded.^[4] The militant was later shot dead by the police.^[6]

Responsibility

The Islamic State claimed the attack^[7] in a statement, claiming that the militant was named "Shuja al-Dawsari". They stated, “With the approval of God Almighty, the soldier of the caliphate Shuja al-Dawsari, may God accept him, set his Kalashnikov upon one of the apostate polytheists’ temples”.^[3]

References