KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait identified on Sunday the suicide bomber behind its worst terrorist attack as a young Saudi Arabian man, and said it had detained the driver of the vehicle that took him to a Shia mosque where he killed 27 people.

The disclosure of the bomber’s Saudi nationality is likely to focus the attention of authorities investigating Friday’s suicide bombing on ties between Islamists in the small Gulf state and those in its larger, more conservative neighbour.

The interior ministry named the bomber as Fahd Suliman Abdul-Muhsen al-Qabaa and said he flew into Kuwait’s airport at dawn on Friday, only hours before he detonated an explosives-laden vest at Kuwait City’s Imam al-Sadeq mosque.

It was not immediately known where Qabaa had arrived from, but the timing of his arrival suggests he had a network already in place in Kuwait. The ministry said it was searching for more partners and aides in this “despicable crime”, adding Qabaa had been born in 1992, putting him in his early 20s.

The Saudi Arabian arm of the self-styled Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the attack on the mosque, where 2,000 worshippers were praying at the time. It was one of three attacks on three continents that day apparently linked to Islamist terrorists.

The attack was the most significant terrorist act of Sunni militants in Kuwait since 2005, when an Al Qaeda-linked group calling itself the Peninsula Lions clashed with security forces in the streets of Kuwait City. Nine Islamists and four security force members were killed in the gunbattles.

The bombing has sharply heightened regional security concerns because IS appears to be making good on its threat to step up attacks in Ramazan.

The group, seeking to expand from strongholds in Iraq and Syria, says its priority target is the Arabian peninsula and in particular Saudi Arabia, from where it plans to expel Shias.

The ministry said the driver of the Japanese-made car, who left the mosque immediately after Friday’s bombing, was an illegal resident named Abdul-Rahman Sabah Aidan. The phrasing of its statement suggests Aidan belongs to the “Bidoon”, a large underclass in Kuwait lacking citizenship and access to jobs.

The interior ministry, which had earlier reported the vehicle owner’s arrest, said Aidan, 26, was found hiding in one of the houses in the al-Riqqa residential area.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2015

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