Bomber behind Kuwait Shiite mosque was Saudi national

Kuwait on Sunday identified the suicide bomber behind an attack on a Shiite mosque as a Saudi national, after a series of arrests in connection with the blast that left 26 dead.

Friday’s attack also wounded 227 worshippers in the first bombing of a mosque in the tiny Gulf state, and Kuwait’s security services have vowed to catch and punish those responsible. The Islamic State group’s Saudi affiliate, the so-called Najd Province, claimed the bombing and identified the assailant as Abu Suleiman al-Muwahhid.

Kuwait’s interior ministry gave the real name of the attacker as Fahd Suleiman Abdulmohsen al-<g data-gr-id="17">Qaba’a</g>, in a statement carried by the official KUNA news agency.

It said that he entered the country through Kuwait Airport at dawn on Friday, the same day of the bombing.

A handout photograph of <g data-gr-id="15">Qaba’a</g> showed a young bearded man wearing a traditional Saudi headdress.

Earlier on Sunday, the ministry said that security services arrested the driver of the car that transported the bomber to the Al-Imam Al-Sadeq mosque in Kuwait City.