The man who blew himself up at a mosque in Kuwait on Friday, killing at least 27 people, had just flown in from Saudi Arabia, officials said Monday.
Kuwaiti officials had previously identified the bomber as a Saudi citizen. Authorities in Bahrain said the bomber flew through Bahrain and arrived in Kuwait on Friday.
“The person responsible for the terrorist blast in Kuwait arrived at Bahrain International Airport from Riyadh on June 25 on Gulf Air flight 170 at 10:40 pm.,” Bahrain’s Ministry of Information said. “He remained in Bahrain transit area until he left for Kuwait on Gulf Air flight 211 at 1:10 on Friday June 26.”
Also, on social media, the terrorist group ISIS posted what it said was an audio message from the bomber, whom it called Abu Suleiman al-Muwahid — presumably the man’s nom de guerre. In the message, which the bomber called his “will to my brothers and to my enemies,” he waned that “what comes next will be worse and more bitter.”
Kuwait’s Interior Ministry identified the attacker on Sunday as Fahad Suleiman Abdulmohsen al-Gabbaa.
Driver, landlord arrested
The bomb ripped through Al-Sadiq mosque during Friday prayers — a time when, more than any other, mosques are packed with worshipers.
It was the worst terrorist attack Kuwait had seen in years, and one of three that took place on three different continents Friday.
Kuwaiti police said they had arrested the man who drove the bomber to the mosque, the country’s state-run Kuwait News Agency reported early Sunday. They identified him as Abdulrahman Sabah Eidan Saud, whom they said was as an “illegal resident” born in 1989.
In addition, police said they had arrested the driver’s landlord, whom who they said was the “bearer of fundamentalist and deviant ideology.”
A message of unity
Beyond the immediate investigation looms the issue of preventing such attacks in the future and ensuring that ISIS, which is wreaking havoc in neighboring Iraq and also has claimed attacks in Saudi Arabia, cannot do the same in Kuwait.
Kuwaiti newspapers Saturday carried messages of unity in this emirate, where Shias are one-third of the population.
“The huge turnout of mourners shows today, this society rejects all divisions and sectarian rifts,” said Speaker of the Parliament Marzouq Al-Ghanim. “The objective of the criminal terrorist act failed miserably since it sought to sow the seeds of division and sectarian strife,” he said.