The Islamic State claimed its fighters carried out the explosive attack that left multiple people wounded during a ceremony commemorating the end of World War I at a Saudi cemetery on Wednesday.
A report by the ISIS news agency A’maq on Telegram said the target of the attack was the French consul because of “his government’s insistence on publishing cartoons that disrespect the messenger of Allah and the Islamic religion.”
Other diplomats were targeted because of their countries being part of the anti-ISIS international military coalition. ISIS says the improvised explosive device was detonated in an effort to defend the Prophet Muhammad.
The explosion left several people wounded in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, where people gathered at a cemetery for the non-Muslim dead, according to the Associated Press.
Though the identities of the victims have not been confirmed, several countries had representatives at the ceremony.
French officials, who spoke on anonymity, condemned the attack.
France encouraged its citizens in Saudi Arabia to be on “maximum alert” after a French middle school teacher was decapitated for showing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad during a class. French President Emmanuel Macron’s backing of caricatures as free speech angered some Muslims who viewed the depictions as incitement and a form of hate speech.
The attack follows a stabbing incident last month that slightly wounded a guard at the French Consulate in Jiddah. The stabbing was committed by a Saudi man whose motives remain unclear.
Wednesday marked the 102nd anniversary of the armistice ending World War I and is an anniversary commemorated in several European countries.
