25 worshippers killed after young IS suicide bomber strikes in a mosque
AT least 25 worshippers were killed yesterday in a suicide bombing at a mosque in Kuwait City as hundreds gathered for prayers during Ramadan.
Victims were said to be mainly men and boys, and the death toll was expected to rise because many of the 202 injured were in a critical condition.
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack on the Imam Sadiq mosque attended by Shia Muslims, who are in the minority in the country. Khalil al-Salih, a Kuwaiti MP, said he saw the bomber enter the building which was packed with around 2,000 worshippers. A loud explosion was heard before parts of the walls and ceiling began collapsing.
‘He walked into the prayer hall during sujood [ kneeling in prayer], he looked ... in his 20s, I saw him with my own eyes,’ he
said. Ahmad al-Shawaf, another eyewitness, said worshippers were standing shoulder to shoulder in group prayer when the explosion struck near the door of the mosque.
He said the blast took place near the end of a second prayer that is traditional to Shia Muslims, and which follows the main midday Friday prayer.
It was the first suicide blast to take place at a Shia mosque in Kuwait and has shocked the country deeply. Prime minister Sheikh Jaber al-Mubarak al-Sabah said the attack was an attempt to threaten national unity, before adding: ‘We are much stronger than that.’
Within minutes of the blast, IS claimed responsibility by posting a message on a Twitter account it is known to use.
An IS affiliate calling itself the Najd Province, which has carried out two bombings on Shia mosques in Saudi Arabia in recent weeks, also said it was behind the suicide attack.
IS regards Shia Muslims as heretics, and refers to them derogatively as ‘rafideen’ or rejectionists. The IS Twitter statement said the bomber had targeted a ‘temple of the apostates’. Kuwaiti ministers insisted that the government would take all necessary measures to ensure protection of houses of worship, adding: ‘Kuwait was, and will remain, the oasis of security and safety to all components of the Kuwaiti society and sects.’
Hundreds of Kuwaitis are fighting with IS in Syria and Iraq. Briton Mohammed Emwazi, also known as ‘Jihadi John’, responsible for beheading Western hostages, was born in Kuwait.