FILE -- In this July 5, 2013 file photo, worshippers visit the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, Saudi Arabia. State-linked Saudi news websites reported an explosion has gone off outside the Prophet's Mosque,... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE -- In this July 5, 2013 file photo, worshippers visit the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, Saudi Arabia. State-linked Saudi news websites reported an explosion has gone off outside the Prophet's Mosque, one of Islam's holiest sites in the city of Medina on Monday, July 4, 2016, the same day that two... (Associated Press) 
 
 DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — State-linked Saudi news websites reported an explosion Monday near one of Islam's holiest sites in the city of Medina, as two suicide bombers struck in different cities without killing anyone. 
 
 Sabq news site and other local media, quoting unnamed sources, said the explosion was caused by a suicide bomber near a security building outside the Prophet Muhammad's mosque. Several cars caught fire. Local media showed images of what appeared to be a fire outside one of the buildings overlooking the Prophet's Mosque. It was not immediately clear if anyone was killed or wounded in the blast. 
 
 The sprawling mosque where the Prophet Muhammad is buried is visited by millions of Muslims from around the world each year during pilgrimages to Mecca. The area would have been packed with pilgrims for prayer during the final days of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends in the kingdom on Tuesday. 
 
 The Interior Ministry could not immediately be reached for comment. 
 
 Qari Ziyaad Patel, 36, from Johannesburg, South Africa, was at the mosque when he heard a blast just as the call to sunset prayers was ending. People were breaking their fast with dates so the mood was subdued, he said. Many at first thought it was the sound of traditional, celebratory cannon fire, but then he felt the ground shake. 
 
 "The vibrations were very strong," he said. "It sounded like a building imploded." 
 
 Also Monday evening, a suicide bomber and a car bomb exploded near a Shiite mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia, according to a resident there, several hours after another suicide bomber carried out an attack near the U.S. Consulate in the western city of Jiddah. 
 
 The possibility of coordinated, multiple attacks across different cities in Saudi Arabia on the same day underscores the threat the kingdom faces from extremists who view the Western-allied Saudi monarchy as heretics and enemies of Islam. Saudi Arabia is part of the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. 
 
 The attack in the eastern region of Qatif did not appear to cause any injuries, said resident Mohammed al-Nimr, whose brother is Nimr-al-Nimr, a prominent Saudi Shiite cleric executed in January. He told The Associated Press the bomber detonated his suicide vest when most residents of the neighborhood were at home breaking the daily Ramadan fast. 
 
 Qatif is heavily populated by Shiites, who are a minority in the Sunni-ruled kingdom. Al-Nimr said that near the body of a suicide bomber was a car bomb that also went off around the same time. 
 
 The IS group's local affiliates in the kingdom have previously attacked Shiite places of worship, including an attack on a Shiite mosque in Qatif in May 2015 that killed 21 people. 
 
 Earlier Monday, the Interior Ministry said a suicide bomber had detonated his explosives when security guards approached him near the U.S. Consulate in Jiddah. The attacker died and the two security men were lightly wounded, according to the ministry statement, which was published by the state-run Saudi Press Agency. Some cars in the parking lot were damaged. 
 
 Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki was quoted in the statement as saying the guards noticed the man was acting suspiciously at an intersection on the corner of the heavily fortified consulate, near a hospital and a mosque. 
 
 The U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia confirmed there were no casualties among consular staff, and said it remains in contact with Saudi authorities as they investigate. 
 
 No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. 
 
 The Interior Ministry did not say whether the bomber intended to target the U.S. diplomatic compound, adding that an investigation is underway to determine his identity. 
 
 The state-run news channel al-Ekhbariya, quoting the Interior Ministry, said the bomber was not a Saudi citizen, but a resident of the kingdom. It gave no further details on his nationality. There are around 9 million foreigners living in Saudi Arabia, which has a total population of 30 million. 
 
 Footage aired on the channel after the attack showed crime scene investigators and police casing the area for evidence and dusting for fingerprints. Al-Ekhbariya said security forces detonated six explosive devices found at the scene. 
 
 A 2004 al-Qaida-linked militant attack on the U.S. Consulate in Jiddah killed five locally hired consular employees and four gunmen. The three-hour battle at the compound came amid a wave of al-Qaida attacks targeting Westerners and Saudi security posts. 
 
 More recently, Saudi Arabia has been a target of Islamic State attacks that have killed dozens of people. In June, the Interior Ministry reported 26 terror attacks in the kingdom in the last two years. 
 
 The U.S. Embassy regularly issues advisory messages for U.S. citizens in Saudi Arabia. In a message issued Sunday and another one issued after the attack Monday, the embassy urged Americans to "remain aware of their surroundings, and take extra precautions when travelling throughout the country." It also advised citizens to "carefully consider the risks of traveling to Saudi Arabia." 
 
 In neighboring Kuwait on Monday, security forces said they had arrested several suspects with alleged ties to IS, including an 18-year-old man who was planning to attack a Shiite mosque in the final days of Ramadan. Officials did not say when the arrests took place. An IS affiliate claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing carried out by a Saudi man last year in one of Kuwait's oldest Shiite mosques. That attack killed 27 people. 
 
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 Associated Press writer Adam Schreck contributed to this report. ||||| Photo 
 
 BEIRUT, Lebanon — A suicide bomber dressed in women’s clothing detonated his explosive belt near the entrance to a Shiite mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia on Friday, killing three other people, according to Saudi state media. The Islamic State jihadist group claimed responsibility, as it did just a week ago for a similar attack in the same region. 
 
 News reports said the bomber, who was dressed in the ample black abaya worn by Saudi women, blew himself up as security officers were approaching him. In a statement posted on Twitter, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it had been carried out by “a soldier of the caliphate” named Abu Jandal al-Jazrawi, a nom de guerre. 
 
 The attack occurred near Al Anoud mosque, in the eastern city of Dammam, where many Shiites live. 
 
 The two attacks, both targeting Shiite mosques during the largest prayer gathering of the week, have raised fears that the sectarian passions fueling conflicts across the Middle East pose an increasing domestic threat to the kingdom. 
 
 Saudi Arabia, a Sunni monarchy with a Shiite minority living mostly in the country’s oil-rich east, has been accused of escalating sectarian bombast against Shiites to rally support for its air offensive in neighboring Yemen against Shiite Houthi rebels. 
 
 Saudi leaders deny that sectarianism has played a role in their decision to form a coalition of nations to bomb the Houthis, who have seized much of Yemen and forced the internationally recognized president into exile. But the country’s powerful clerical establishment considers Shiite Islam a distortion of the Muslim faith, and Saudi Shiites are often accused of being loyal to the kingdom’s regional rival, Iran. 
 
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 For its part, the Islamic State considers both Shiites and the Saudi royal family apostates who should be killed. 
 
 Friday’s attack came exactly a week after a suicide bomber blew himself up inside another Shiite mosque in Al Qudaih, near Qatif, the regional center of the Eastern Province, killing 21 people. The Islamic State, which controls territory in Iraq and Syria, claimed responsibility. Saudi officials said that attacker was a Saudi citizen who had taken direction from the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. 
 
 Saudi officials have blamed the Islamic State for several other, mostly small-scale attacks in recent months, though it has taken responsibility for only some of them. 
 
 The Saudi government has condemned the attacks as terrorism, and last week, the Saudi interior minister and crown prince, Mohammed bin Nayef, flew to the Eastern Province to meet with victims of the first attack and their families.But in one exchange broadcast on state television and later posted on YouTube, a Saudi man pointed out that a private Saudi television station, Wesal TV, airs the anti-Shiite views of hard-line clerics. 
 
 “If the government does not do its part, permit me, your highness, it is a partner in this crime,” he said. 
 
 Prince Mohammed responded: “The state will remain the state and will ensure security, no matter who violates it. So let us all be one hand with the state.” 
 
 “We are with the state,” the man replied.
– Yet more high-profile terror attacks: Suicide bombers struck three cities in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, including in Medina near one of the holiest sites in Islam. In the latter incident, the explosion took place outside the mosque where the Prophet Muhammad is buried, reports AP. Several cars caught fire, and local media showed images of what appeared to be a fire outside one of the buildings overlooking the Prophet's Mosque. The number of casualties was unclear, though Reuters reports three bombers and two security forces officers were killed. The sprawling mosque is visited by millions of Muslims from around the world each year during pilgrimages to Mecca. The area would have been packed with pilgrims for prayer during the final days of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends in the kingdom on Tuesday. Also Monday evening, a suicide bomber and a car bomb exploded near a Shiite mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia, several hours after another suicide bomber carried out an attack near the US Consulate in the western city of Jiddah. Neither of those two attacks killed anyone but the bombers. The possibility of coordinated, multiple attacks across different cities in Saudi Arabia on the same day underscores the threat the kingdom faces from extremists who view the Western-allied Saudi monarchy as heretics and enemies of Islam. Saudi Arabia is part of the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. The violence follows attacks in Iraq, Bangladesh, and Turkey.