Kuwait observed a day of mourning after 27 people died in an attack on a Shia mosque during Friday prayers. A mass funeral was held on Saturday after the country was hit by its worst militant attack in years.
Another 227 people were wounded in the Imam Sadiq (PBUH) Mosque in the capital Kuwait City. Images circulating online show bodies on the floor amid debris, BBC reported.
An Islamic State affiliate calling itself the Najd Province said it was behind the attack. IS has recently carried out similar attacks in neighboring Saudi Arabia and Yemen. However, Friday’s explosion was the first attack on a Shia mosque in Kuwait.
A Kuwaiti MP who saw the attacker said the mosque was packed with some 2,000 worshippers when there was a loud explosion.
Suspects Arrested
Kuwait arrested several people in connection with Friday’s suicide bombing, according to sources.
The interior ministry said an unspecified number of suspects were being questioned in connection with the attack, including the owner of a vehicle that took the bomber to the mosque.
Kuwaiti daily Al-Qabas said state security had arrested three people suspected of being involved.
Officials were looking for the driver of the Japanese-made car, who left the mosque immediately after the bombing.
Shias form a third of Kuwait’s 1.3 million native population, and Sunni groups have been quick to condemn the attack which Kuwait’s emir, the government, parliament and clerics said was aimed at igniting sectarian tensions.
The nation’s leader, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, visiting the site of the bombing, said that the “criminal attack is a desperate and evil attempt targeting Kuwait’s national unity.”
