Four
Pakistanis, an Indian and a police officer were among those killed in the gun
attack, according to Pakistani, Indian and Omani officials. The Oman police
said 28 people of various nationalities were wounded, including security
personnel.
The attack began on Monday evening at the Ali bin Abi Talib
mosque in the Wadi al-Kabir neighbourhood of Oman's capital Muscat, authorities
said, 500 meters from an international school and an adjacent skateboard park
and less than 10 kilometers from a string of five-star beach resorts.
Such violence is exceptional in the wealthy, Sunni
Muslim-dominated Gulf states ‑ ordinarily secure and stable ‑ raising fears
that Islamic State, which has operated in the shadows since it was largely
crushed by a US-led coalition in 2017, may be attempting a comeback in new
territory.
Islamic State said in a statement late on Tuesday that three
of its "suicide attackers" fired on worshippers at the mosque on
Monday evening and exchanged gunfire with Omani security forces until morning.
The group also published what it said was a video of the
attack on its Telegram site.
Another video shared on social media and verified by Reuters
showed people running from the mosque while gunfire could be heard.
Police have not said whether they have identified a motive
for the attack or made any arrests. Omani authorities also have not released
the identity of the attackers.
A local
source said the mosque was also known as Imam Ali mosque and is a Shi'ite place
of worship in Ibadi-ruled Oman, which has a small but influential Shi'ite
minority.
Describing the incident as a "terrorist" attack,
the Pakistani foreign ministry said 30 survivors were being treated in
hospitals.
Islamic
State said its fighters attacked a gathering of Shi'ite Muslims who were
"practicing their annual rituals."
Monday evening marked the beginning of Ashura, an annual
period of mourning, which many Shi'ite Muslims mark publicly, to commemorate
the 7th century death of Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Mohammad. The
observation of Ashura has sometimes triggered sectarian tensions between Sunni
and Shi'ite Muslims in some Middle East countries, though not typically in Oman
where the Ibadi sect promotes tolerance.
Most Omanis adhere to Sunni Islam or to the Ibadi faith,
which is a branch of Islam that has much in common with mainstream Sunni Islam.
"This is a very unprecedented event ... the likes of it
we have not seen in Oman's history," Pakistan's ambassador to Muscat,
Imran Ali, said after visiting some victims in hospital.
He said most of the 30 victims there were being treated for
gunshot wounds while others had suffered injuries fleeing the attack, including
being crushed in a stampede.
In
March, the Islamic State group said it was behind an attack that
killed more than 140 people at a concert hall near Moscow, and in January it
claimed responsibility for two explosions in Iran that killed nearly
100.
Such high profile attacks have stoked fears of a comeback
for a group with clandestine leadership and whose fighters are thought to be
scattered in autonomous cells.
At its
height of its power in the early-2010s, Islamic State declared a
"caliphate" over a wide area of Syria and Iraq, imposing death and
torture on detractors, and inspiring attacks in dozens of cities around the
world. The group's control collapsed after a sustained military campaign by a
US-led coalition.
