Mortar bombs land in Saudi Arabia near Iraq border

Three mortar bombs landed inside Saudi Arabia on Monday close to its northern border with Iraq, where Islamist militants have grabbed land in a lightning advance, officials said. The mortars caused no casualties but will stoke security fears in Saudi Arabia, which is also facing militants on its southern border with Yemen, where at least 10 people died in an al Qaeda raid into the kingdom on Friday and Saturday. Authorities in Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil producer, said they were still looking into who fired Monday's rounds, which landed near a block of flats outside the northern town of Arar. Saudi King Abdullah last week said he was stepping up security following the advance in Iraq by the militant Islamic State, which has declared a caliphate on land up to his border. Saudi authorities fear the gains in Iraq made by Islamic State - an al Qaeda offshoot which has shortened its name from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) - could radicalise their citizens. Bringing down the al-Saud ruling family is one of the main goals of al Qaeda, which wants to establish a cross-border caliphate in Islam's holy city of Mecca, located in western Saudi Arabia, according to Reuters.