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Kuwait Shia mosque hit by suicide blast Kuwait Shia mosque blast death toll 'rises to 25'
(about 2 hours later)
At least four people have been killed in a suicide bomb attack on a Shia mosque in the Kuwaiti capital. The death toll from a suicide attack on a Shia mosque during Friday prayers in the Kuwaiti capital has risen to at least 25, the interior ministry says.
Many people were injured, and unconfirmed reports put the death toll much higher. Another 202 people were wounded, it added. Images circulating online show bodies on the mosque floor amid debris.
The blast hit during Friday prayers at the Imam Sadiq Mosque in al-Sawaber, a busy area to the east of Kuwait City. The blast hit the Imam Sadiq Mosque in a busy area to the east of Kuwait City.
An Islamic State- (IS) affiliated group said it was behind the attack. IS has carried out similar recent attacks in neighbouring Saudi Arabia and Yemen.An Islamic State- (IS) affiliated group said it was behind the attack. IS has carried out similar recent attacks in neighbouring Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
The governor of Kuwait City, Thabet al-Muhanna, told Reuters four people had died in the suicide attack. However, the AFP news agency said at least 13 people were killed. At least eight people were reportedly wounded. A Kuwaiti MP, who saw the attacker, said the mosque was packed with some 2,000 people when there was a loud explosion, Reuters reported.
A Kuwaiti MP, who saw the attack, said the mosque was packed with some 2,000 people when there was a loud explosion, Reuters news agency reported. "It was obvious from the suicide bomber's body that he was young. He walked into the prayer hall during sujood [kneeling in prayer], he looked... in his 20s, I saw him with my own eyes," Khalil al-Salih told the news agency.
Footage posted online said to be from the scene of the attack showed men, some in blood-splattered clothing, walking around a smoke-filled room with rubble on the floor. A paramedic, speaking to AP news agency, said most of the victims men and boys attending Friday prayers.
Al-Jazeera also reported that the Kuwaiti emir was heading to the scene of the blast. Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber al-Mubarak al-Sabah said the attack was an attempt to threaten national unity. "But this is too difficult for them and we are much stronger than that," he added.
Sunni-ruled Kuwait has a large Shia minority, which IS considers to be heretics. State TV showed the Kuwaiti Emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, visiting the damaged mosque.
An IS affiliate calling itself the Najd Province - the same group that claimed a pair of bombing attacks on Shia mosques in Saudi Arabia in recent weeks - said it was behind the attack.
A spokesman for Islamic State this week urged the militant group's followers to step up attacks during the Islamic month of Ramadan.
Sunni-ruled Kuwait has a large Shia minority, which IS considers to be heretical.