Determined Attempt on Ibn Saud's Life

Manawatu Times, Volume 60, Issue 66, 20 March 1935, Page 7

Determined Attempt on Ibn Saud's Life

BLOODSHED IN MOSQUE United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright. LONDON, March 15. An official of the Saudi-Arabian delegation to London, states that King Ibn Baud’s assailants in the course of his pilgrimage were members of the Zcidi sect of Moslems, who were subjects of the Imam of Yemen. Possibly the recent dispute between Ibn Saud and the Imam was responsible for the attempt. The moment chosen for the attempt was the holiest of the Moslem year, and the place the most sacred in the Moslem world.

Mr St. John Philby, Ibn Saud’s European adviser, cabling to the Daily Mail from Mecca, says that the assassins suddenly emerged from throngs around the King and threw two bombs, the second of which burst in front of him, Hying fragments entering and slightly injuring a leg. In the confusion the would-be assassins, with bared daggers, rushed at the King, but were stopped by the Crown Prince, who at the first sign of a dagger threw himself in front of his father and himself received in the left shoulder a dagger aimed at the King. The wound was deep but not serious. Royal' slaves immediately opened fire on the assassins.- Two were slain outright and the third escaped and took shelter in a shop before he was taken. Several other arrests were made.