‘Attack hardened resolve to pray together’
KUWAIT CITY, June 29: Four days after the terrorist attack in the Shia mosque in Sawaba, Kuwait City that killed 27 people with 227 hospitalized with various degrees of injuries, some of the patients on the fourth floor of the Amiri hospital following the incident, still have stories of the incident to tell.
Abbas Ja’afar, one of the patients, speaking to the Arab Times, said in the final minutes of prayer last Friday, a man entered the mosque in the back rows and shouted “Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar” and detonated a bomb. After a few minutes the whole place was in a mess, I checked for my brothers, cousins and I saw a lot of dead bodies around me.
After that the fire and police departments took us to the hospital and thank God we are receiving good treatment and we shall be discharged soon. The government will do something better, if you want to control your country, security should be the topmost priority otherwise there would be chaos”.
Normally, there are people who give out money to people to kill as many people as they can, irrespective of their reli- gions and they do it to create chaos in a country. Until now, Kuwait used to be the most stable country in the Middle East, but no more. But all is not lost; adjustments in the security system can bring back confidence.
Asked if he would still attend congregational prayers after this incident, he answered in the affirmative, stressing that what happened rather has hardened the resolve of people to pray together.
Meanwhile, Kuwaiti authorities on Sunday identified the suicide bomber behind the attack as a Saudi citizen who flew into the Gulf nation just hours before blowing himself up.
Police have begun making arrests in connection with Friday’s bombing, which took place at one of Kuwait’s oldest Shiite mosques during midday prayers. An affiliate of the Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the blast in the normally peaceful oil-rich nation.
The Interior Ministry named the bomber as Fahad Suleiman Abdulmohsen al-Gabbaa and said he was born in 1992, making him 22 or 23 years old. It said in a statement carried by the official Kuwait News Agency that he arrived on a flight to Kuwait International Airport at dawn Friday.