Kuwait executes bomber, 4 other inmates

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Kuwait said Thursday it executed five prisoners, including an inmate convicted over the bombing of a Shiite mosque in 2015 that killed 27 people and was claimed by the Islamic State group.

The inmates were hanged at the Central Prison, Kuwait’s Public Prosecution said in a statement. Prosecutors said the five include the man convicted in the mosque attack, Abdulrahman Sabah Idan, three people convicted of murder and a convicted drug dealer from Sri Lanka. One of the convicted murderers was Egyptian, another was Kuwaiti.

Idan, known as Saud, was a so-called Bidoon, a group largely made up of descendants of desert nomads considered stateless by the Kuwaiti government. During his trial, prosecutors described him as driving the Saudi suicide bomber to the Imam al-Sadiq Mosque in Kuwait City.

The 2015 bombing occurred during midday Friday prayers inside the mosque, one of Kuwait’s oldest for Shiites. The Islamic State group, which at the time controlled large areas in both Syria and Iraq, claimed the attack, which also wounded over 220 people. The Sunni extremist group views Shiites as apostates deserving of death.