Paris, Nov 11: Multiple people were wounded on Wednesday when an explosive device hit an international ceremony commemorating the end of World War I at a cemetery in the Saudi Arabian city of Jiddah, according to French government officials.
Several countries had representatives at the ceremony, held at a cemetery for non-Muslim dead, the officials from the French Foreign Ministry said. The identities of the victims were unclear.
Wednesday’s attack follows on the heels of a stabbing on October 29 that slightly wounded a guard at the French Consulate in the city of Jiddah. The stabbing was carried out by a Saudi man, who was arrested.
His motives remain unclear. Wednesday marks the 102nd anniversary of the armistice ending World War I and is commemorated in several European countries. The French officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, condemned the attack. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the explosion. Saudi officials and state-run media in the kingdom have not commented on the attack. Jiddah, the Red Sea port city, saw its Ottoman troops surrender to the local troops backed by the British in 1916 amid the war.
That sparked the start of the Kingdom of Hejaz, which later became part of Saudi Arabia in 1932 Jiddah’s Non-Muslim Cemetery sits nears this port city’s docks, hidden behind trees alongside a major thoroughfare in the city.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission shows just one soldier buried at the cemetery, Pvt John Arthur Hogan, who died in June 1944. (AP)
