The bombing took place in Najran, the capital of the region in southern Saudi Arabia

A suicide bomber blew himself up at a Shi’a mosque in Najran in southern Saudi Arabia on Monday. At least one person was killed and several others were wounded, the Saudi interior ministry said.

The SPA news agency and Al Arabiya television delivered the ministry’s first official word on the attack. Earlier media reports said three people died in the blast.

The attack on the al-Mashhad mosque, attended by followers of the Ismaili Shi’a branch of Islam, occurred during evening prayers, an interior ministry spokesperson told Saudi-owned Al Arabiya.

“As the Magreb prayer ended and the worshippers came out of the main door, a man entered the mosque and blew himself up,” Mohammed al-Askar, a doctor from Najran told Reuters, adding that it was the first time a Shi’a Ismaili mosque had been targeted.

Ismaili Shi’as are a majority in the Najran area but a minority in mainly Sunni Saudi Arabia.

The kingdom has been hit by a spate of deadly shooting and bomb attacks, many of them laid at the door of Islamic State. The militant group is bitterly opposed to Gulf Arab rulers and is seen as trying to stir up sectarian confrontation on the Arabian peninsula to bring about the overthrow of the ruling dynasties.

It has urged young Saudi Sunnis to attack targets including Shi’as.

In mid-October, five people were killed after a gunman opened fire on a Shi’a Muslim meeting hall in the Eastern city of Saihat.

In August, a suicide bomber killed at least 15 people in an attack on a mosque used by members of a local security force in southwest Saudi Arabia, an assault that an online statement said was carried out by ISIS.

Another bombing claimed by Islamic State on a Shi’a mosque in Kuwait in June killed 27 people.

“Tonight in Najran the hospitals are crowded and people are coming from all over Najran to donate blood,” said al-Askar.

“Unfortunately for Saudi I think the Islamic State is going to repeat such treacherous acts. It is a ploy to gain attention. But people are helping each other and they have trust in their government.”