Kuwait mosque bombers swears allegiance to Isil in posthumous audio message
A voice recording circulated by supporters of the extremist group purports to be the last statement by the suicide bomber who killed 27 Shia Muslims in a Kuwait mosque last week
Imam Sadiq Mosque following a blast in al-Sawaber, Kuwait City
The Saudi bomber who blew himself up in a mosque in Kuwait killing dozens of worshippers recorded a statement before his death swearing allegiance toAbu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).
The audio message, accompanied by two still photos was posted online by pro-Isil Twitter accounts after Fahd Suliman Abdul-Muhsen al-Qabaa killed at least 27 members of the mosque's Shia Muslim congregation last week.
In the message the speaker addresses Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, telling him to "be patient and swear to God that we are with you".
He then vows to pursue jihad – holy war – against his enemies and especially Shia Muslims in Kuwait, saying they can expect revenge for what he terms insulting Islam.
He threatens: "We are on the lookout for you."
Saudi national Fahd Suliman Abdul-Muhsen al-Qabaa carried out Friday's atrocity in a Kuwait mosque
A caption below the clip calls the bomber a "soldier of the caliphate" and identifies him by the nom de guerre of Abu Suleiman al-Muwahhed.
The authenticity of the audio message could not be immediately independently verified, but analysts said the message was being treated as legitimate by Isil supporters.
Charlie Winter, senior researcher at the Quilliam think tank said: "It is making the rounds among [Isil supporters] as any other official propaganda does, and posthumous “wills” like these are not unprecedented."
The audio message came as Saudi authorities said there was nothing documented in Qabaa's past indicating that he planned to carry out a terrorist attack.
Saudi Arabia's interior ministry said the bomber, a man in his early twenties, had no record with security forces or any background indicating terrorist activities. It confirmed he left the Kingdom on Thursday bound for Bahrain.
Bahrain's interior ministry said Qabaa arrived in that island nation on a Gulf Air flight from the Saudi capital, Riyadh, at 10.40pm of the same day. He remained in transit for two and a half hours before boarding a connecting flight to Kuwait.
A man in a blood-soaked dishdasha following of a deadly blast at a Shiite mouse in Kuwait
Just two hours after he landed, Qabaa blew himself up in a Shia mosque in Kuwait City, killing 27 people, and wounding more than 200 others.
The blast – which struck within hours of deadly attacks in Tunisia and France – has rattled largely stable Kuwait.
The small, oil-rich country, ruled by a Sunni monarchy and with a sizeable Shia minority, has mostly avoided the sectarian violence rocking other parts of the region.
Isil consider Shia to be heretics, and the war in Syria, which has further polarised Shia and Sunni Muslims has only worsened the sectarian enmity.
Prior to the audio message Isil's Najd Province offshoot had claimed responsibility for the Kuwait mosque attack. It has also claimed two attacks on Shia mosques in Saudi Arabia in late May.
