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Six people, including four Pakistanis, were killed and around thirty injured in a shooting near a Shiite mosque in Muscat, authorities announced on Tuesday, July 16. A rare incident in the Sultanate of Oman, known for being stable and neutral. The police specified in a statement on X that “the three attackers were killed”, without mentioning their nationality, specifying that an investigation has been opened.
On Tuesday evening, the Islamic State group (IS) finally claimed responsibility for the shooting. Three “Islamic State fighters in the Omani capital Muscat” were behind the attack, claimed the Aamaq agency, an IS propaganda tool. It added that the targets were “Shias practicing their annual rituals” of Ashura. Unlike Sunnis, Shiites celebrate Ashura to commemorate the death in Karballah of Hussein, son of Caliph Ali Ibn Abi Taleb.
According to local police, the shooting began at 11pm local time on Monday and lasted until the early hours of Tuesday. A security perimeter was set up near the mosque named after Ali Ibn Abi Taleb, the first imam of the Shiites, in eastern Muscat.
Images verified by AFP show people fleeing in front of a mosque, whose minaret is visible, as gunshots ring out. One person can be heard shouting “Oh God” and repeating “Oh Hussein”, in reference to Imam Hussein. Pakistani Ambassador Imran Ali said the attackers had taken worshipers “hostages”, who were later freed during an operation by Omani security forces.
The attacked Shiite mosque is mostly frequented by migrants from South-East Asia, including Pakistanis, who number 400,000 in Oman.
Algeria condemned the attack in the strongest possible terms on Wednesday.
“Algeria condemns in the strongest terms the cowardly terrorist attack committed near the Imam Ali mosque in the Omani capital Muscat,” said a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and National Community Abroad.
“In this painful circumstance, Algeria assures the Sultanate of Oman, a brother country, of its full solidarity, and presents its sincere condolences to the families of the victims, wishing a speedy recovery to the injured,” said the same source.
Faced with this heinous attack, “Algeria reiterates its rejection of all forms of violence and terrorism, reaffirming its full availability to cooperate with the international community in its efforts to counter this scourge, which goes against all human and moral values,” the text concludes.