At least three dead in suicide attack at Saudi mosque - Arabiya TV

The attack on the al-Mashhad mosque occurred during evening prayers, and authorities were investigating the bombing, www.sabq.org, a Saudi news website, reported, without giving further details.

A video shared by daily newspaper al-Watan showed panicked worshippers fleeing the scene and a child falling to his knees as sirens wailed and dust filled the street.

On Aug. 6, 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 Islamic State.

In May, two suicide bomb attacks on Shi'ite Muslim mosques in Saudi Arabia were claimed by Islamic State. The first on a mosque in Qatif in the east of the kingdom killed 21 worshippers, and another four died in a bombing a week later at a mosque in Dammam.

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

The militant group, bitterly opposed to Gulf Arab rulers, is trying to stir sectarian confrontation on the Arabian peninsula to bring about the overthrow of the states' ruling dynasties.

It has urged young Saudi Sunni Muslims in the kingdom to attack targets including Shi'ites.

There was no immediate word on the religious affiliation of the mosque. Ismaili Shi'ites are a majority in the Najran area but a minority in mainly Sunni Saudi Arabia.

(Reporting by Sami Aboudi and Tom Finn, Editing by William Maclean and Richard Balmforth)