Four killed in rare shooting near mosque in Oman's capital

Four people were killed and several others injured in a shooting near a mosque in Oman's capital, Muscat, in a rare flare of violence in the Middle Eastern Sultanate.

The shooting took place near a mosque in the al-Wadi al-Kabir neighborhood in the east of the city, the Royal Oman Police said in a post on X in the early hours of Tuesday morning, local time.

Video shared on social media and geolocated by NBC News appeared to show a crowd of people running as gunshots rang out near the Imam Ali mosque. Someone could be heard shouting “Oh Hussein.”

The force said at least four people had died and “a number of others” were injured, citing preliminary information from an investigation into the incident.

Investigators provided limited details on the incident and did not share any information on potential suspects or a possible motive. The force did not say if anyone had been arrested.

They said “all security measures” had been taken to respond to the situation and an investigation was still underway.

Shortly after the attack, Oman’s Department of Blood Banking Services wrote on X that “large amounts of blood reserves will be needed to heal the injured.”

The U.S. Embassy in Oman also issued a warning for Americans to “stay away from the area.”

It said U.S. citizens in the area should be aware of their surroundings, lock their doors, monitor local news and report any suspicious activity to the local police.

All visa appointments would be cancelled for the day, it said, citing safety precautions following the shooting. However, it added they were likely to resume by Wednesday.

The State Department has a level 2 travel advisory in place to exercise increased caution while traveling in Oman “due to terrorism and armed conflict,” specifically warning U.S. citizens not to travel to the area near the border with Yemen, the poorest country in the region that has been wracked by civil war since August 2014.

Such violence is rare in Oman, which is situated on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula.

Oman is predominantly Muslim country although most who practice are neither Sunni nor Shiite. Instead many in the country practice Ibadi Islam, a more moderate form of the religion.

The homicide rate in the country was consistently at 0.7 per 100,000 people in 2010, 2015 and 2019, compared with 5.8 per 100,000 in 2019 in the United States, growing from 5.7 in 2016 and 5.5 in 2010, according to data published by the World Health Organization.