Kuwait boosts security at oil facilities after mosque attack

Saturday, 27 June 2015 9:24 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 27 June 2015 9:25 AM ]

Kuwaiti security forces and emergency personnel gather outside Imam al-Sadeq Mosque in Kuwait City after it was targeted by an ISIL bomb attack during Friday prayers on June 26, 2015. (© AFP)

The Kuwaiti government has stepped up security at its oil facilities “to the maximum level” a day after an ISIL terrorist attack killed over two dozen worshipers at a Shia mosque in the capital.

Sheikh Talal Khaled Al-Sabah, an official from the country’s state owned oil firm, said in a statement that “Kuwait Petroleum Corp and its subsidiaries have raised security measures to the maximum level following the terrorist bombing on Friday.”

“All refineries, oilfields and oil sector operations have been placed under heightened security measures to maintain normal operations without being affected by the terrorist threat,” he added.

Oil is Kuwait’s main source of income, making up 90 percent of the money that comes into the Persian Gulf kingdom.

The announcement comes after 27 people were killed and over 200 others injured in a bombing at Imam Sadiq Mosque in the capital Kuwait City. Kuwait has declared Saturday a national day of mourning for the victims of the attack.

Kuwaiti security personnel and medical staff carry a man on a stretcher after a bomb attack on Imam Sadiq mosque in Kuwait City on June 26, 2015. (© AFP)

Police have detained several suspects for questioning in connection with Friday's bombing, which was claimed by the Takfiri ISIL terror group, according to authorities.

The man who bombed the mosque is a national of Saudi Arabia, according to reports.

Activists in Kuwait say that they will hold a protest in front of the Saudi embassy on Sunday to condemn the attack.

ISIL has claimed responsibility for similar bomb attacks in Saudi Arabia and Yemen over the past weeks.

Friday also witnessed similar bloodshed perpetrated by ISIL terrorists in Tunisia and France.

In Tunisia, 38 people, mostly foreign tourists, were killed in a shooting attack on a beach resort near tourist hotels in the port city of Sousse off the Mediterranean Sea. The ISIL claimed responsibility for the fatal assault.

Elsewhere in southeastern France, a man with links to ISIL rammed a car into a gas factory, where he decapitated his former employer, pinning the severed head to the gates of the place.

HDS/MKA/HRB

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