*A bomb blast struck a World War I commemoration attended by Westerndiplomats in the Saudi city of Jeddah Wednesday, leaving at least twopeople wounded in the second assault on diplomatic missions in recentweeks, officials said.*
The attack at a non-Muslim cemetery comes less than a month after a guardat the French consulate in Jeddah was wounded by a knife-wielding Saudicitizen, amid anger among Muslim nations over satirical cartoons of ProphetMohammed (PBUH).
Diplomats from France, Greece, Italy, Britain and the United States were inattendance at the Armistice Day commemoration ceremony in the Red Sea portcity, according to a joint statement from their embassies that condemnedthe “cowardly attack”.
“The annual ceremony commemorating the end of World War I at the non-Muslimcemetery in Jeddah, attended by several consulates, including that ofFrance, was the target of an IED (improvised explosive device) attack thismorning, which injured several people,” France’s foreign ministry said.
A Greek policeman residing in the kingdom was among those wounded, a Greekdiplomatic source told AFP.
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A British citizen was also believed to have been wounded.
A Saudi policeman suffered minor injuries, state-owned Ekhbariya televisionadded, citing the governor of Mecca region, where Jeddah is located.
“(Saudi) security services will launch an investigation into an incident ofaggression during a gathering of a number of consuls in Jeddah,” Ekhbariyasaid.
