The suicide bomber who attacked a Shiite mosque in Kuwait last week, killing 27 people, was a Saudi national who flew into the neighboring Gulf nation hours before carrying out his deadly mission, Kuwaiti officials say. The self-declared Islamic State later claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Associated Press reports that Kuwaiti police have started making arrests in connection with the bombing during Friday midday prayers at the Imam Sadiq Mosque in Kuwait City.
The AP reports:
"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.
"Authorities also said they arrested a 25-year-old from Kuwait's 'bidoon' — or desert nomad — community, identified as Abdulrahman Sabah Eidan Saud, who they say drove the car that brought the bomber to the mosque."
The Interior Ministry described Abdulrahman as a follower of "fundamentalist and deviant ideology."
Reuters says:
"Officials said the bombing was clearly meant to stir enmity between majority Sunnis and minority Shiites and harm the comparatively harmonious ties between the sects in Kuwait.
"Shiites are between 15 and 30 percent of the population of Kuwait, a mostly Sunni country where members of both communities live side by side with little apparent friction."
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