UNIDENTIFIED gunmen in the eastern, predominantly Shia Muslim Al-Ahsa Province, of Saudi Arabia, attacked a Shia Muslim mosque killing four worshipers and injuring 30 others, some seriously. The incident is bound to sour relations further between Shia and Sunni Muslims in the Kingdom. The massacre of Shia Muslim worshipers marking one of their most important religious celebrations, the annual Ashoura commemoration of the assassination of the grandson Imam Hussein venerated as a saint by Shia Muslims, and the Passover celebrated by Sunni Muslims according to the Islamic (Hijri) calendar on 10th of the Hijri month of Muharram, is the latest terrorist attack by militant Sunni Muslim groups in the Kingdom. Gunmen shot dead at least five people in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, Al-Ahsa. The oil-rich province is predominantly Shia Muslim, the only province in the Kingdom with a Shia majority. Other Saudi provinces are overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim. The attack exacerbates the already strained relations between Sunnis and Shia Muslims across the Middle East. The Saudi Shia Muslim minority have long complained about being persecuted by the Sunni authorities. However, Riyadh suspects that Shia activists are supported by Iran, the principal Shia Muslim power in the region, as well as Shia groups in Lebanon and Iraq. Al-Ahsa Province's geographical proximity to the Kingdom of Bahrain, a predominantly Shia island nation ruled by a Sunni dynasty.
