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Seven sentenced to death over Kuwait mosque bombing

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Court sentences seven suspects over suicide attack that killed at least 26 people during Ramadan, state media reports.

Kuwaiti police cordon off the mosque after the suicide bombing. (AFP/File)

Kuwaiti police cordon off the mosque after the suicide bombing. (AFP/File)

by Al Jazeera

A Kuwaiti court has sentenced seven suspects to death over the Imam al-Sadiq Mosque bombing, which killed at least 26 people and injured more than 200 others, the country’s state news agency reported.

Kuwait’s criminal court on Tuesday sentenced eight others to two and 15 years behind bars and acquitted 14 others, Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) said.

The court heard statements from the defence lawyers and later charged the defendants with using explosives with the intention of “killing, spreading terror, committing murders, joining an internationally banned group that promotes toppling the ruling system with illegitimate means and threatening the country’s unity”, KUNA reported.

The Imam al-Sadiq Mosque in Kuwait City was attacked by a Saudi suicide bomber on June 26 during Friday prayers in the holy month of Ramadan.

Kuwait launched a security crackdown on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) after the attack was claimed by the group.

Saudi authorities arrest two over Kuwaiti mosque bombing

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Kuwaiti police cordon off the mosque after the suicide bombing. (AFP/File)

Kuwaiti police cordon off the mosque after the suicide bombing. (AFP/File)

by Press TV

Saudi security forces have reportedly identified three Saudi brothers suspected of orchestrating the recent bomb attack at a Shia mosque in Kuwait, arresting two of them.

Spokesman for the Saudi Interior Ministry Major General Mansour al-Turki announced on Tuesday morning that the three suspects had been detained following close cooperation and exchange of information between law enforcement authorities in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

He added that two of the brothers were born in Kuwait, while the third was born in Saudi Arabia. A fourth brother has also joined the ranks of Daesh operating in Syria.

Turki further said that one of the brothers was recently captured in Kuwait, and will be handed over to Saudi security officials within the next few days.

Saudi forces captured the second suspect in the city of Taif in Mecca Province, while the third was arrested following an exchange of gunfire with Saudi troopers in the town of Ras al-Khafji on the border between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

On June 26, at least 27 people lost their lives and 227 others sustained injuries when an explosion ripped through Imam Sadiq (PBUH) Mosque in al-Sawabir, a busy residential and shopping district of Kuwait City.

A bomber reportedly blew himself up in the mosque where worshippers had gathered for Friday prayers.

Later in the day, Daesh claimed responsibility for the attack. Daesh had also carried out two bomb attacks at Shia mosques in eastern Saudi Arabia a month earlier.

Kuwait to hold mass funeral for mosque attack victims

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Day of mourning declared and suspects reportedly held a day after deaths of 27 people in bombing in Shia mosque.

Shia mosque attack

by Al Jazeera

Kuwait is to hold a mass funeral for the victims of a suicide bombing of a Shia mosque that killed 27 people and wounded 227 others.

Saturday was also a day of mourning in the Gulf Arab country following the attack on the Imam Sadiq mosque in the district of Sawaber, in the eastern part of Kuwait City.

The funeral will follow the arrests of several people suspected of involvement in Friday’s bombing.

The owner of the car that drove the bomber has been arrested and a search is under way for the driver, Kuwait’s state news agency reported on Saturday.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group claimed responsibility for the bombing, which was Kuwait’s worst attack in years and the first on a Shia mosque.

In a message posted on a Twitter account known to belong to the group, ISIL claimed the blast was the work of a bomber wearing an explosive vest.

The attack prompted the Kuwaiti cabinet to announce after an emergency meeting that all security agencies and police had been placed on alert to confront what it called “black terror”.

“The cabinet stresses that it will take whatever measures necessary to root out this scourge, and declares a relentless all-out confrontation with these terrorists,” it said in a statement.

Kuwait’s Emir Sabah al-Ahmad Al Sabah visited the mosque, located just a few buildings away from the country’s interior ministry, following the attack.

He said the bombing violated the sanctity of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan as well as Islamic law forbidding the shedding of the blood of innocents.

“National unity is a protective fence for the security of the nation,” Sabah said.

ISIL targeted Shia mosques in neighbouring Saudi Arabia on two consecutive Fridays in May.

Clouds of smoke

Video footage from the scene showed several bodies on the floor of the mosque amid debris and clouds of heavy smoke.

Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah al-Mubarak al-Sabah, a Kuwaiti government spokesperson, said that despite security forces having been equipped with the latest technology, attacks such as the one that occurred on Friday were very hard to stop.

“We will be investing in metal detectors and the like but even that can be overcome with the use of different types of technologies,” he told Al Jazeera.

Shia Muslims comprise between 15 and 30 percent of the predominantly Sunni Muslim state, where members of both communities are known to live side by side with little apparent friction.

Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Jamjoom, reporting from Kuwait City, said “the shock of yesterday’s attack will be something it will take a long time for Kuwaitis to get over”.

“This is a country where they say Sunni and Shia live harmoniously and they will continue to do so,” he said.

“In Kuwait, nobody could have anticipated this. That’s why the people are so worried.”

After 13 years imprisoned without charge, man released from Guantanamo

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Groups say human rights violations at the prison continue, Gitmo must be closed

gitmo-prisoners

by Andrea Germanos, Common Dreams

A man held at the Guantánamo Bay prison for nearly 13 years without charge has been transferred to his home country of Kuwait.

The Department of Defense made the announcement of his release Wednesday.

Thirty-seven-year-old Fawzi al Odah is the first man to be released based on the assessment of the Periodic Review Board, a body established in 2011 through an executive order and tasked with evaluating the merits of ongoing detention for Guantánamo prisoners.

Agence France-Presse reports that in 2001, Odah “was seized by tribesmen in northern Pakistan, who sold him to the Pakistani army, which in turn handed him over to the United States.”

The transfer agreement requires al Odah to spend at least a year at a rehabilitation facility, according to reporting by the Associated Press.

One hundred forty-eight men still remain at the offshore prison, 79 of whom have been cleared for release.

Rights groups welcomed the decision to release Odah, but stressed that it was just a small step forward at the notorious prison.

“The U.S. government must do far more to end human rights violations at Guantánamo,” stated Amnesty International USA’s Director of Individuals At Risk Program Zeke Johnson. “All remaining detainees should either be fairly tried in federal court or released.”

The Center for Constitutional Right issued a similar statement: “The real work now is in getting the Obama administration to do the right thing and live up to its promise to close Guantánamo: release the men who have been cleared, no matter where they are from, and give the others real trials, not indefinite detention.”

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