Kuwait government says mosque suicide bomber was Saudi national

Mangalore Today Network-1

Kuwait: June 28, 2015: Kuwait’s Interior Ministry said Sunday that it had identified the suicide bomber who blew himself up at a mosque as a Saudi citizen, according to the official Kuwait News Agency.

 

The Ministry named the attacker as Fahad Suleiman Abdulmohsen Al-Gabbaa.

The terrorist group ISIS, which claimed responsibility for the attack, had identified the bomber as Abu Sulieman al Muwahid -- probably the man’s nom de guerre.

The bomb ripped through the Al-Sadiq mosque during Friday prayers -- a time when, more than other, mosques are packed with worshipers.

It was the worst terrorist attack Kuwait had seen in years, and one of three that took place on three different continents Friday.


Kuwaiti police said they had arrested the man who drove the bomber to the mosque, the country’s state-run Kuwait News Agency reported early Sunday. They identified him as Abdulrahman Sabah Eidan Saud, whom they said was as an "illegal resident" born in 1989.

In addition, police said they had arrested the driver’s landlord, whom who they said was the "bearer of fundamentalist and deviant ideology."

A message of unity
Beyond the immediate investigation looms the issue of preventing such attacks in the future and ensuring that ISIS, which is wreaking havoc in neighboring Iraq and also has claimed attacks in Saudi Arabia, cannot do the same in Kuwait.

Kuwaiti newspapers Saturday carried messages of unity in this emirate, where Shias are one-third of the population.

"The huge turnout of mourners shows today, this society rejects all divisions and sectarian rifts," said Speaker of the Parliament Marzouq Al-Ghanim. "The objective of the criminal terrorist act failed miserably since it sought to sow the seeds of division and sectarian strife," he said.