THE bombing struck the Imam Sadiq Mosque in the residential neighbourhood of al-Sawabir in Kuwait's capital, Kuwait City on Friday, targeting those gathered for weekly prayers. It is one of the oldest Shi'ite mosques in Kuwait, a predominantly Sunni Arab nation where at least at third of the population is believed to be Shi'ite Muslims.
It was the third attack in five weeks to be claimed by a purported IS affiliate calling itself the Najd Province, a reference to the central region of Saudi Arabia where the ultraconservative Sunni ideology of Wahhabism originated. The upstart IS branch had claimed two prior bombing attacks on Shi'ite mosques in Saudi Arabia that killed 26 people in late May. The group was unheard of until the first Saudi bombing. The attack took place as worshippers were standing shoulder to shoulder in group prayer, according to one of the witnesses at the mosque, Hassan al-Haddad. The explosion ripped through the back of the mosque, near the door, he said, adding that other worshippers behind him said they saw a man walk in, stand in the back with other congregants and detonate his device. Another witness, Ahmed al-Shawaf, said he heard a man interrupt prayer by shouting "Allahu Akbar," or "God is Great" in Arabic, several times. The man then he yelled out something about joining the Prophet Muhammad for iftar, the dusk meal with which Muslims break their daytime fasting during the holy month of Ramadan, which started last week. Then, the blast came, al-Shawaf said. The explosion took place near the end of a second prayer, which is traditional to Shi'ites and follows the main midday Friday prayer. The Ministry of Interior said 25 people were killed and 202 wounded. Police formed a cordon around the mosque's complex immediately after the explosion, banning people from entering or gathering near the area. Ambulances could be seen ferrying the wounded from the site.
No comments:
Post a Comment