Bomb Blast Hits Remembrance Day Event at Saudi Non-Muslim Cemetery

A picture shows the outside of a non-Muslim cemetery in the Saudi city of Jeddah where a bomb struck a World War I commemoration attended by European diplomats on Nov. 11, 2020. AFP via Getty Images

Three people were wounded in a bomb blast on Wednesday during an international event marking the Armistice Day in the Saudi city of Jeddah.

An explosive device went off during the remembrance event marking the 102nd anniversary of the end of the First World War.

The event was being held at the city’s non-Muslim cemetery, and was attended by French, American, British, Italian, and Greek officials.

Greece’s Foreign Ministry condemned the attack and said a Greek policeman serving in the Greek Consulate in Jeddah was wounded.

“The embassies that were involved in the commemoration ceremony condemn this cowardly attack, which is completely unjustified,” said the French Foreign Ministry.

“They call on the Saudi authorities to shed as much light as they can on this attack, and to identify and hunt down the perpetrators.”

Wednesday marks the 102nd anniversary of the armistice ending World War I and is commemorated in several European countries.

Jeddah, the Red Sea port city, saw its Ottoman troops surrender to the local troops backed by the British in 1916 amid the war.

The latest attack follows a stabbing on Oct. 29, when a Saudi man attacked and injured a guard at the French consulate in Jeddah.

The motive behind Wednesday’s bomb attack is not immediately clear, but multiple European countries, including the UK, have raised their security alert levels following a series of Islamic terrorist attacks.

On Nov. 2, a 20-year-old dual citizen of Austria and North Macedonia fired at crowds at six different locations in the Austrian capital Vienna, killing four people and wounding 22.

On Oct. 29, a Tunisian man shouting “Allahu akbar” attacked the Notre Dame church in the southern French city of Nice, beheading an elderly woman and killing two others.

European countries, and France in particular, are targeted in this fresh wave of terror attacks as Muslims in multiple Islamic countries were angered by the display and publication in France of caricatures of Prophet Muhammad.

The caricatures of Muhammad have been widely displayed at marches in solidarity with a French history teacher, who was beheaded by an 18-year-old Chechen refugee on Oct. 16, after he used the Muhammad caricatures in a class on freedom of expression.

President Macron has vigorously defended the cartoons as protected under the right to free speech, triggering protests in multiple Muslim countries.

Islamic terrorist groups ranging from the Taliban in Afghanistan to Hezbollah in Lebanon have condemned Macron’s defense of the Muhammad cartoons.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.