The authority in Kuwait has provided us with aspirin for our headaches. Yesterday they bombed , today beheaded.
r.h.
Kuwait Court Sentences Seven to Death for Shiite Mosque Bombing
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the June attack that killed 27 people
A security services member stands guard at the Grand Mosque in Kuwait City. Security has increased following the June suicide bombing where 27 people were killed. PHOTO: EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY
DUBAI—A Kuwaiti criminal court Tuesday sentenced seven people to death for their roles in an Islamic State-claimed bombing at a Shiite mosque in June that killed 27 people.
Another eight suspects were given between two and 15 years in prison, while 14 others were acquitted, according to the official Kuwait News Agency.
The bombing, a rare instance of a terrorist attack in the Persian Gulf, targeted the Shiite Muslim Imam Al Sadiq mosque in Kuwait City. It came on the same day as a terrorist attack at a resort in Tunisia in which dozens were killed.
The Kuwait bombing suspects included several locals, Saudi Arabians, Pakistanis and illegal residents, KUNA reported. They were charged with helping the bomber, identified by Kuwaiti authorities as Saudi national Fahad al-Qabaa, and aiding in the planning and execution of the attack.
It wasn’t immediately clear when the death penalty would be carried out, or the nationalities of those sentenced.
Mr. Qabaa killed himself in the blast. He was charged with spreading terror, and joining an internationally banned group that threatens the country’s unity.
A branch of the Sunni extremist group Islamic State had claimed responsibility for the June bomb attack, saying at the time it was targeting a Shiite sect whose members it considers heretics. The same Islamic State branch in May had claimed two other deadly attacks on Shiite mosques in neighboring Saudi Arabia.
Kuwait has since increased security measures and cracked down on extremist groups amid a rise in sectarian violence across the Middle East. In July, it said it arrested several suspected members of a domestic Islamic State network who fought in Iraq and Syria.
In a sign of its growing intent in tackling extremism, the Kuwaiti court delivered its verdict on the bomb attack within six weeks of holding the first trial session on Aug. 4.
“The Kuwait verdict fits the pattern of mass convictions we have seen in Saudi Arabia over similar attacks. The aim is to communicate to the population that ‘something is being done about it’ even if many [or all] of the convicts have little direct responsibility,” Professor Christopher Davidson, a specialist in Gulf Affairs at the U.K.’s Durham University.
“In states with a long track record of forced confessions this is of course doubly worrying. With regards future attacks, I think we are seeing the very beginning of a sustained campaign, rather than an isolated incident,” he added.
The bombings have also renewed scrutiny of terror support within the Gulf states, with the U.S. having warned the monarchies for years that they weren't doing enough to stop their own citizens from supporting extremist groups
