Special to WorldTribune.com

A group affiliated with Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) claimed responsibility for a bombing attack on a Shi’ite mosque in Kuwait on June 26 that left at least 25 people dead.

Another 202 people were wounded as the blast ripped through Imam Sadiq Mosque east of Kuwait City during Friday prayers. An ISIL-aligned group called Najd Province said it carried out the attack.

A Kuwaiti member of parliament who saw the terrorist told Reuters that about 2,000 people were inside the mosque when he heard an explosion.

“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 said.

Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber al-Mubarak al-Sabah said the attack would not damage his country’s national unity. “This is too difficult for them and we are much stronger than that.”

ISIL had launched similar attacks in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, but the June 26 bombing was the first such assault on a Shia mosque in Kuwait. Shi’ites make up about one-third of Kuwait’s population of 1.3 million.

  Imam Sadiq Mosque, ISIL-tied attack rips Shi’ite mosque in Kuwait, kills 25, Najd Province, WorldTribune.com