Kuwait mosque attack suspect admits to being in ISIL

Abdulrahman Saud said that he joined the extremist group on June 25, a day before he drove a suicide bomber to the mosque where hundreds were wounded in the country’s worst such attack.

Mourners carry the body of one of the victims of the Al Imam Al Sadeq mosque bombing, during a mass funeral at Jaafari cemetery in Kuwait City on June 27, 2015. Yasser Al Zayyat/AFP Photo

KUWAIT CITY // The driver in Kuwait’s Shiite mosque bombing that killed 26 in June told a court on Tuesday that he joined ISIL the day before the attack.

Abdulrahman Saud said that he joined ISIL on June 25, the day before he drove a suicide bomber to the Kuwait City mosque where hundreds were wounded in the country’s worst attack.

Saud was being tried with 21 men and seven women, some of whom are charged with being in a proscribed group and taking part in the bombing.

Most are also accused of assisting those behind the attack.

Saud drove Saudi bomber Fahad Al Qaba’a and was arrested two days after the blast in a hideout owned by two other suspects.

He confessed to transporting an icebox containing the explosives belt from near the Saudi Arabian border.

The icebox was delivered by two Saudi brothers who are now in custody in Saudi Arabia, along with a third brother who was arrested in Kuwait.

Saud said he met Al Qaba’a at the airport and took him to a five-star hotel late on the night before the attack. At 2.30am he took him to a restaurant for suhoor, as it was Ramadan, then back to the hotel.

That morning, Saud said he took the bomber to his home in Sulaibiya, 20 kilometres south-west of Kuwait City, where he shaved off his beard and put on the belt. About 11am they left for the mosque.

Saud said he left the bomber there about 90 minutes later and drove off.

Yesterday’s hearing was held under tight security. Five of the defendants were still at large.

The seven women present, wearing black abayas and face veils, were allowed to sit with female police guarding them while the male defendants were placed in a metal cage.

Only Saud admitted to being a member of ISIL. All of the others denied involvement in the bombing.

Thamer Al Jadaei, the lawyer for Jarrah Nimer who owned the car used in the attack, said his client gave the vehicle to Saud to deliver iftar meals.

Mr Al Jadaei also said that Nimer and all members of his family were Shiites after converting. The women defendants included the wives of Saud and Nimer.

Charged are seven Kuwaitis, five Saudis, three Pakistanis, 13 stateless people and a man at large whose identity is unknown.

An ISIL-affiliated group calling itself Najd Province claimed the bombing and said it carried out suicide attacks at two Shiite mosques in Saudi Arabia in May.

ISIL considers Shiites to be heretics and has targeted them across the region. The next hearing in the case was set for Thursday.

* Agence France-Presse