Who Is Abdullah Qalzar Khan? Pakistani Man Behind Jeddah Bombing, Not Medina Attack

UPDATE: 6:35 AM EDT — The Pakistani man identified by Saudi Arabian officials was responsible for the suicide bombing at the U.S. consulate in Jeddah and not for the attack at the mosque in Medina, the Associated Press reported, correcting an original version of its story. The agency had earlier reported, citing Saudi officials, that Abdullah Qalzar Khan was the person behind the attack outside the Prophet's Mosque.

UPDATE: 4:52 a.m. EDT — Saudi Arabian authorities have identified the suicide bomber outside the Prophet's Mosque in Medina as 34-year-old Abdullah Qalzar Khan, a Pakistani resident of the kingdom.

The Interior Ministry said in a statement Tuesday that the man, who lived in the nearby Red Sea port city of Jeddah with "his wife and her parents," arrived 12 years ago to work as a driver in the country.

Original story:

Four security officers were killed and five others injured Monday after a suicide bombing attack outside the Prophet's Mosque in Saudi Arabia's Medina, Islam's second holiest city, the Saudi interior ministry said. The attack comes just days ahead of the Eid al-Fitr festival, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

Authorities said that the bomber detonated his explosives after being stopped outside the mosque, the burial place of the Prophet Muhammad. No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack. Some local media reports also said that the bomber targeted the security officers by pretending he wanted to break his Ramadan fast with them.

"Security men noticed a suspicious person among those approaching the Prophet's Mosque in an open area used as parking lots for visitors' cars. As they confronted him, he blew himself up with an explosive belt, which resulted in his death and the martyrdom of four of the security men," a Saudu security spokesman said, according to local media.

Two other explosions took place near a mosque in the eastern city of Qatif on the Gulf coast around the same time as the Medina blast. A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a Shiite mosque. The attacker was killed but no other casualties were reported.

Early on Monday morning, two security officers were injured as a suicide bomber blew himself up near the U.S. consulate in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah. The explosion occurred 33 feet from the consulate's wall.

The Jeddah bomber was identified as a 34-year-old Pakistani driver named Abdullah Qalzar Khan, who lived with his wife and family in the city.