Headlines
25 killed in Kuwait mosque explosion, IS claims hand
Kuwait City, June 26
At least 25 people were
killed and at least 202 others wounded on Friday in a suicide bomb
attack on a Shia mosque which the Islamic State (IS) militant group
claimed responsibility for, media reports said.
The blast rocked
the Imam Al-Sadeq Mosque, located in the busy neighbourhood of
al-Sawabir of the capital city, Xinhua reported citing the official
Kuwait News Agency.
Kuwait's interior ministry said that 25
people were killed and at least 202 others were injured in the blast,
which occurred when a large number of Muslims were offering Friday
prayers inside the Mosque.
Kuwaiti Emir Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber
Al-Sabah visited the mosque, located just a few buildings away from the
country's interior ministry.
An emergency session of parliament has also been called, an Al Jazeera report said.
Meanwhile,
Saad al-Ajmi, Kuwait's former information minister, told Al Jazeera
that the attack was a reminder that no country was "immune from
terrorism".
Ajmi said Kuwait had "a good record" in its
relationship between Sunni and Shia groups, and was a small country with
good security without widespread dissent.
However, if a group
was responsible, he said: "I think that those who want to tip the whole
region ablaze in a sectarian war would be behind this attack because
that is their agenda."
The attack was designed to threaten
national security, and break national unity, said Yaaqoub al-Sanae,
Kuwait's minister of Awqaf and Islamic affairs.
"Kuwait will
remain an oasis of security for all groups of Kuwaiti society and all
sects. The government is taking many procedures to protect prayers and
mosques," al-Sanea told Kuwait's state news agency KUNA.
The
explosion was the first suicide bombing attack on a Shia mosque in the
Gulf Arab state, where Sunnis and Shia live side by side with little
apparent friction.
If proven to be true, then it was not the
first time for the IS group to plot and carry out such attacks against
Shia mosques. It has claimed responsibility for bombings at two
different Shia mosques in neighbouring Saudi Arabia in recent weeks.
On
March 20, IS suicide bombers also attacked two mosques in Yemen's
capital Sanaa and Houthi headquarters in the northern Saada province,
killing at least 137 people in the attacks, the most deadliest in Yemen
for decades.
Casualties were expected to grow as Friday prayers
have always been the most attended of the week, while the number of
people joining the prayers would increase during the Muslim holy month
of Ramadan that started on June 18 in the Gulf countries.