Sunday’s deadliest strike came when a roadside bomb exploded at 7:15 a.m. local time next to a minibus heading from the Shia neighbourhood of Sadr City into downtown.
Police said three people were killed, including a police officer, and nine were wounded.
A hospital worker confirmed the casualties.
Earlier, three bombs planted a few meters away from each other in a downtown business district blew up simultaneously. Police and hospital officials said a bystander was killed and seven injured.
Sayyed al-Nasser says: “We will not accept any sectarian discrimination against us or derogation of any of our national rights.”
The renowned Shiite cleric Sayyed Muhammad Baqir al-Nasser condemned the continuous campaign of interrogation calls against the Shiite population in the city of Khobar by the Saudi authorities that ban group prayers for the Shiite population in Khobar.
On the last month, Sayyed al-Nasser indicated that the Shiite people of the city insist on their rights of performing group prayers by stating: “With God willing, we will pray in our sanctums and let the State bear the brunt of preventing our prayers.”
In referring to the possibility of his detention, Sayyed al-Nasser said: “If their repeated calls to me personally, using various pretexts, to prepare for my arrest, it will not change my position at all.”
The statement came after a series of interrogation calls to Sayyed al-Nasser and the most prominent Shiite and the supervisor of one of the mosques, Mr. Abdullah al-Muhanna.
Authorities have exerted steady pressures on Mr. al-Muhanna to refrain from providing group-praying places and discontinue hosting guests of Shiite figures.
Before, [ailing] Mr. al-Muhanna was detained for more than five weeks for the reason of establishing congregational prayers in the mosque, which is supervised by him and abutted to his home.
Sayyed al-Nasser said: “We will not accept any sectarian discrimination against us or any diminution of our national rights,” adding to that: “We have gotten tired of this moot argument about performing group prayers, and after today, we will not obey any mortal on the expense of the [blatant] words of God.”
Last year, the authorities closed down four Shiite mosques in al-Khobar. They also consistently refused to grant the Shiites official licenses for constructing mosques without providing a clear justification for such denial.
The Saudi Shiites constitute more than 15% of the country’s population and live mostly in the oil-rich region.
According to unofficial estimates, al-Khobar city hosts around twenty thousand Shiites.
In addition to the Shiite mosques in al-Khobar, authorities shut down five other Shiite mosques in the cities of Dammam, Abqaiq, Ras Tanura, and al-Khafji.
Saudi Arabia adamantly refuses to grant their Shiite citizens official licenses to construct mosques outside of their indigenous areas of al-Ahsa, Qatif, and Najran without giving a clear justification for such rejection.
The organization of “Human Rights Watch” described in a report earlier this year the situation of human rights in Saudi Arabia as “degraded” for two million Shiite citizens, which is of serious concerns.
Last month, The Saudi Wahhabi Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (SCPVPV), also known as Religious Police, had attacked a religious ceremony held in Al-Medina city on the occasion of the birth of Imam Mahdi, the Imam that Shiites believe to be the ultimate savior of humankind and the last Imam of the Twelve Imams.
The attack was carried against one of Al-Ahsa organizations that was celebrating the holy birth of Imam Mahdi in one of the hotels near the holy mosque of the Prophet Mohammad.
According to eyewitnesses, without prior notifications, some members of the SCPVPV attacked the location of the organization at one of the hotels and destroyed all of the paintings, the slogans, and banners that contain sayings of Prophet Mohammad and religious excerpts about Imam Mahdi. In addition, some of SCPVPV members forced the organizers of the ceremony to cancel the events immediately.
Coincidently, the attack occurred at the same time when Sheik Ali Al-Hejji was delivering a religious oration for his audience.
No information reported about casualties or arrests of the organizers by the SCPVPV.
Nonetheless, the SCPVPV imposes strict rules on the Shia visitors of the holy mosque of Prophet Mohammed and Al-Baqi cemetery, in which it reached the limit to prevent them from carrying prayer booklets that the SCPVPV considers as polytheistic books.
Additionally, it is rare to record incidents of attacks on religious ceremonies held by Al-Hajj and Al-Umra organizations at their locations in hotels.
Dozens of Al-Umra and Al-Hajj organizations from Al-Ahsa and Al-Qatif go to the cities of Mecca and Medina during the summer break to spend their time in performing rites of minor hajj (Umra) in Mecca and visiting Prophet Mohammed in Medina.
However, many radical Salafi websites reported unconfirmed information about an intense security presence in the vicinity of the holy mosque of Prophet Mohammed and the cemetery of Al-Baqi.
Last year, the SCPVPV supported by the Saudi security guards were blamed for one of the deadliest attacks yet on thousands of Shia pilgrims of the holy mosque of Prophet Mohammed in a dramatic seen in which the Saudi security guards arrested dozens of Shia pilgrims; lately, the incident has been known as Al-Baqi’s events.
Grand Ayatollah Ali Safi Golpayegani issued a statement on Saturday authorizing that a third of the Imam’s share of the khoms charity tax be donated to floods victims in Pakistan.
Pakistan’s worst floods in 80 years have left 20 million people homeless and six million without food, medicine, or shelter.
A third of Pakistan is now under water, and fresh rainfall threatens two more waves of flooding in the southern province of Sindh.
According to the Encyclopedia of the Middle East, the Khoms charity tax as interpreted by the Jafari school of Shia Islam consists of a “tax on one fifth of the income, in addition to the zakat. It is calculated as a capital gains tax. The tax is paid to the governor, but it is voluntary and is never a forced exaction.”
According to the book Religion, Globalization, and Political Culture in the Third World, edited by Jeffrey Haynes, “Half of the khoms, known as the Imam’s share (sahm-e imam or vodjuhat) is generally collected by a network of mosques and is centralized by the devotional leaders (marja taqlid)… It is intended to ensure the material upkeep of the clergy.”
In response to the severe flooding in the Islamic state of Pakistan, which has claimed many lives and brought devastation to the Muslim people of that county, Ayatollah Safi Golpayegani expresses his condolences and allows a third of the Imam’s share to be donated as humanitarian assistance for Pakistan, the statement said.
Jafria News 
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