Saudi Arabia arrests 3 brothers in connection with deadly bombing of Shiite

Three brothers from Saudi Arabia have been arrested in connection with the suicide bombing of a Shiite mosque in Kuwait that has reverberated across the Gulf.

The attack during Friday prayers, which killed 27 people including the bomber, appeared aimed at stoking sectarian hatred in the energy-rich Gulf.

Twenty-seven people died in the attack in Kuwait, the deadliest terror attack the country ever suffered, and the most lethal in any of the small Arab Gulf states since Saudi Arabia managed to suppress a campaign of al Qaeda bombings in the early 2000s. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for both of the attacks.

Two of the suspects, Majed and Mohammed al-Zahrani, drove across the border into Kuwait on Thursday afternoon carrying the explosives for the attack in an ice cooler, Kuwait’s interior ministry said in a statement.

Two security personnel were wounded in the shootout, it said, adding that brother Majed was arrested in the southwestern Saudi city of Taif.

“Two of them were born in Kuwait and they have ties to a fourth sibling who is present in Syria as part of Daesh”, the Saudi ministry said, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.

“More than 40 suspects, including a number of women, have been referred to the public prosecution”, the official told AFP, requesting anonymity.

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.