DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Several gunmen stormed a Shiite mosque in Oman and opened fire, killing six people and wounding nearly 30 others, authorities said Tuesday, shocking the peaceful sultanate and making it the deadliest attack of its kind in the country in recent memory.
The extremist Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack in the capital Muscat, via its news agency, without providing evidence. This was the first time the extremist group had claimed responsibility for an attack in the Sultanate of Oman.
The Islamic State, which considers Shiites heretics, targeting Shiite worshippers on the eve of their holy day is nothing new. The group claimed responsibility for the attack in January. An attack in Shiite-majority Iran that killed 84 people.
What is even more shocking, analysts say, is that the attack took place in Oman, a quiet country on the southeastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula with well-trained security forces, a laissez-faire policy and a majority population of Ibadi Muslims, a more liberal branch of Islam that predates the Sunni-Shiite split.
“This shows that ISIS is thinking outside the box and trying to do things that most people think are not possible, exploiting small failures within the security structures of different countries,” said Aaron Zelin, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
There is no known branch of the Islamic State in Oman, a country that tends to stay out of the sectarian conflicts engulfing the wider region. But Islamist extremists, including branches of the Islamic State and al-Qaeda, have a foothold in neighboring, war-torn Yemen.
The Royal Oman Police said the shooting killed five worshippers at the mosque in Muscat’s Wadi al-Kabir district and a police officer. Omani authorities did not specify the number of gunmen or their nationalities but said security forces killed three attackers.
Omani police said at least 28 people were wounded in the shooting, including officers and paramedics. The mosque was packed with worshippers holding special prayers on the eve of the Shiite Muslim holiday of mourning. Ashurawhich commemorates the martyrdom of Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, in the 7th century AD in Karbala in present-day Iraq.
Pakistan identified four of the dead as its citizens. Nearly two million migrants, many from Pakistan and elsewhere in South Asia, help support Oman’s economy by filling low-skilled jobs in construction and other fields.
Analysts described the rare shooting as the latest example of how the Islamic State group, after losing territory in Iraq and Syria nearly five years ago, is seeking to strike further afield.
“It’s part of their reorganization from being a group that did most of its activities in Iraq and Syria to using their resources in a global network,” Zelin said, citing The deadly attack on a Moscow concert hall last March “And other bombings claimed by the group’s regional branch, the Islamic State in Khorasan, across Afghanistan and Pakistan. That makes them more resilient in some ways.”
The US Embassy in Muscat has issued a security alert, warning citizens to “remain vigilant.”
Like other Gulf emirates, Oman has tight restrictions on traditional media. State news agencies on Tuesday hailed the authorities’ success in containing the chaos, but offered little information about the status of the investigation or the attack itself.
In an interview with the Times of Oman, an English-language daily, a Pakistani worshipper at the mosque described scenes of fear and chaos and reported that the shooting — both the attack and the subsequent exchange of fire with Omani police — lasted for an hour and a half.
Statements of condolences and anger came from across the region, with Oman playing a sensitive role.
The sultanate maintains friendly relations with both Saudi Arabia, the traditional Sunni Muslim stronghold, and its regional rival, Shiite power Iran. Iran’s foreign ministry said it “stands in solidarity with Oman against such attempts to sow discord.”
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he was “deeply saddened” by the shooting and offered Pakistan’s help in the investigation.
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