ISIS eyed in Ramadan carnage across the Muslim world
The Muslim holy month of Ramadan is drawing to a close, and it has been a bloody one for people of the Islamic faith in one of the religion's most revered locations.
A suicide bomber blew himself up the previous day outside the mosque where the Prophet Muhammad is buried in Medina. Five Saudi troops were killed in the attack and five others wounded. It was one of three similar attacks around Saudi Arabia on Monday that may have been coordinated.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks yet, but CBS News correspondent Charlie D'Agata says Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants are considered the most likely suspects.
The bomber only got as far as the parking lot in Medina, but it was close enough to the Prophet's Mosque -- one of the holiest sites in Islam -- to make a symbolic impact that will resonate with Muslims around the world.
The death toll was relatively low because he didn't make it into the actual mosque grounds. It could have been much worse. Millions of Muslims make the pilgrimage to Medina ever year, and large crowds had gathered Monday for sunset prayers.
The heat of the blast caused cars' fuel tanks to blow up after the initial explosion.
It was the last of three attacks Monday in Saudi Arabia -- an unprecedented day of violence in the tightly-controlled Kingdom -- including one that appeared to target the U.S. Consulate. The Saudi government on Tuesday identified the bomber in that attack as a Pakistani man who had lived in the Kingdom for more than a decade.
And as D'Agata reports, they coincided with a wave of ISIS-linked mass killings across the globe that have left hundreds dead in recent days.
Iraqi officials said Tuesday that the death toll from the devastating suicide bomb that tore through a bustling shopping district in Baghdad had risen to make it one of Iraq's deadliest terror attacks ever. Officials said the toll had risen to 175.
That blast came only a week after the Iraqi military announced a complete victory over ISIS in the key city of Fallujah, just 40 miles west of Baghdad.
As D'Agata reports, the more territoriy ISIS loses on the battlefield, the more terror attacks it seems to launch away from it.
Even before the attacks in Saudi Arabia, ISIS militants launched a triple suicide bombing and shooting spree at Turkey's main airport that left more than 40 people dead, and an attack on a café in Bangladesh over the weekend that left 20 people dead. The FBI has offered its assistance after that attack, which left one American dead.
And the list goes on. Tuesday morning there was a suicide bombing in Indonesia linked to ISIS.