A SUICIDE bomber blew himself up near a Shi’ite mosque in the eastern Saudi city of Dammam yesterday, killing four people.

He tried to enter the mosque during Friday prayers and detonated his bomb in the car park after being stopped by security guards.

Dammam is about 40km from Qatif, where a suicide bomb attack on a mosque killed 21 people last week. Islamic State (Isis) claimed responsibility.

The port at Qatif is a major oil terminal from which 70 per cent of Saudi Arabia’s oil is exported.

It is also near the island nation of Bahrain. On May 8 two suspects were arrested while driving a vehicle loaded with explosives across the King Fahd causeway between the two countries.

Five more suspects were arrested and explosives seized in police raids over the following days.

Authorities claimed that Iranian currency and mobile phone sim cards were found in the suspects’ homes.