Gulf sectarian divide ‘will just remain Daesh dream’

June 29, 2015

Kuwait City, Jun 29: Authorities on Sunday identified the suicide bomber behind an attack on a Shiite mosque that killed 27 people and injured 227 as a Saudi citizen who flew into the Gulf nation just hours before blowing himself up.

The Interior Ministry named the bomber as Fahad Suleiman Abdulmohsen Al-Gabbaa and said he was born in 1992, making him 22 or 23 years old.

It was not immediately known where Al-Gabbaa had arrived from, but the timing of his arrival suggests he had a network already in place in Kuwait. The ministry said it was searching for more partners and aides in this “despicable crime.”

The government-linked Al-Jarida newspaper reported that at least seven suspects have been detained in connection with the attack.

The ministry said the driver of the Japanese-made car, who left the mosque immediately after Friday's bombing, was an illegal resident named Abdul-Rahman Sabah Aidan, a Bidoon.

Authorities on Saturday arrested the car owner, Jarrah Nimr Mejbil Ghazi, born in 1988, and also listed as a stateless person.

Security services have also detained the owner of the house used as a hideout by the driver, describing the owner as a Kuwaiti national who subscribes to “extremist and deviant ideology”.

The ministry said authorities will “continue efforts to uncover the conspirators in this criminal act and to reveal all of the information and circumstances behind it.”

Mourners turned out in large numbers Saturday despite the Ramadan fast and as temperatures hit 45 degrees Celsius.

“We want to deliver a message to Daesh that we are united brothers among the Sunnis and Shiites, and they cannot divide us,” said Abdulfatah Al-Mutawwia, a Kuwaiti living in Iraq who lost his brother in the bombing.

Officials said the bombing was clearly meant to stir enmity between majority Sunnis and minority Shiites and harm the comparatively harmonious ties between the sects in Kuwait.

Kuwaitis reacted with outrage to the bombing. Some said citizens who fund armed groups fighting in Syria and Iraq were to blame for any militancy in Kuwait.

“The wrath of God will come upon Daesh and everyone who is supporting them and collecting funds for them under the cover of helping refugees and orphans,” wrote Hamad Al-Baghli, a Kuwaiti, on Twitter.

Abdulrahman Al-Jeeran, a parliamentarian, told Reuters lawmakers should stop “sectarian discourse” and be prevented from using sectarian issues for electoral gains.

Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah instructed authorities Sunday to repair the targeted mosque.

Local media said 18 of those killed were Kuwaitis, three Iranians, two Indians, one each from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and one Bidoon.

The bodies of the eight victims were flown to Iraq's city of Najaf for burial.

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Syrian Town erupts after Israeli forces enter Beit Jinn; heavy casualties reported

News Network

November 28,2025

Several Syrians were killed and more than two dozen others injured in Israeli strikes on the outskirts of Damascus, amid intensified incursions by the occupying regime since the fall of former president Bashar al-Assad and the rise of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rule.

Syrian state TV reported that the casualties occurred during an overnight Israeli assault involving helicopters and drones on the town of Beit Jinn in the Damascus countryside. The attack followed an Israeli military unit’s entry into the town, where they were surrounded by local residents, leading to gunfire and direct confrontations.

According to the report, “The occupation army’s helicopters and artillery shelled Beit Jinn, located at the foothills of Mount Hermon, resulting in 13 martyrs and 25 injured civilians.” The broadcaster did not specify the full extent of damage.

Al-Ikhbariyah Syria confirmed that the shelling coincided with Israeli soldiers entering Beit Jinn, while artillery pounded surrounding areas. The broadcaster stated that the escalation began after local residents clashed with an Israeli patrol that had infiltrated the southern town and “kidnapped” three young men.

Following a two-hour exchange of heavy fire, Israeli forces withdrew and repositioned on the hill of Butt al-Warda at the town’s outskirts.

Israeli media acknowledged that six soldiers were wounded in the clashes—three of them seriously—describing the confrontation as a “sudden ambush” that forced the deployment of reserve units and air support to secure an exit route. No further details were provided.

The aggression has fueled renewed displacement from Beit Jinn, with residents fleeing to nearby villages amid increasingly frequent Israeli attacks.

The raid came just a day after Israeli troops carried out another ground incursion into Umm al-Luqas village in Quneitra province. According to SANA, an Israeli unit in four vehicles entered the village, raided several homes, and later withdrew.

Syria condemned the repeated incursions as violations of the 1974 Disengagement Agreement and UN resolutions, urging the international community to enforce compliance and pressure Israel to halt its operations and withdraw fully.

Israel has expanded its attacks across Syrian territory following the collapse of the Assad government last year. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly instructed his forces to push deeper into Syrian territory and seize strategic positions.

Meanwhile, critics say the HTS-led interim government’s inaction and growing normalization gestures toward Israel have emboldened Tel Aviv to intensify its military operations. HTS, formerly linked to al-Qaeda, seized control of Damascus last December, formally ending Assad’s rule.

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