RIYADH – Six mortar bombs landed near a border post in northern Saudi Arabia in an attack claimed by an Iraqi Shi’a militia, which said on Thursday, Nov. 21, that it was warning the kingdom to stop meddling in Iraqi affairs.

The mortar rounds hit desert on the far northwestern fringes of the kingdom’s oil-producing region on Wednesday, several hundred kilometers from the major fields operated by the world’s largest oil exporter and biggest Arab economy. The attack caused no damage.

“The goal was to send a warning message to Saudis to tell them that their border stations and patrol are within our range of fire,” Wathiq al-Batat, commander of Iraq’s al-Mukhtar Army militia, told Reuters in Baghdad by telephone.

He said the militia wanted Riyadh to stop “interfering” in Iraq and that it had also been angered by Saudis and Kuwaitis who he said had insulted the Prophet Mohammad’s daughter.

There was no independent confirmation that the militia was behind the mortar fire, reported two days after twin suicide bombings killed 25 people near Iran’s embassy in Beirut. Some commentators blamed that assault on Iran’s regional rival Saudi Arabia, which has condemned the Beirut attack. Iran has not commented on the mortar attack on Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman Major-General Mansour Turki said Iraq and Kuwait, as well as the kingdom itself, were investigating the mortar fire. Baghdad said it was not involved.

“There were no rockets or anything fired towards the Saudi border by security forces,” said Jabar al-Sa’adi, head of Basra provincial council’s security committee, in southern Iraq.

Turki said Saudi forces had not been put on higher alert after the bombardment.