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A Kuwaiti paramedic and a human rights activist say that at least 16 people have been killed and dozens have been wounded in an attack on a Shiite mosque.

The extremist Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the explosion at the Imam Sadiq Mosque in Kuwait City during midday prayers Friday.

Paramedic Abdelrahman al-Yusef says most of the victims were men or boys who were at the mosque when the bombing took place.

He says the medics have treated at least 179 people.

Basel al-Fadli from the Kuwait Watch Organization says he recorded 16 deaths, but that several people are still missing.

Both spoke to an Associated Press reporter at Kuwait City’s Amiri Hospital, where most of the wounded and dead were taken after the blast.

At least 25 killed; Daesh terror group claims responsibility for the blast; Kuwait’s Emir inspects site

Kuwait: Daesh claims responsibility for mosque explosion in Kuwait. At least 25 killed

Dubai: At least 25 were killed and many people wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a Shiite Muslim mosque packed with some 2,000 worshippers during Friday prayers in Kuwait city, a witness said.

According to initial witness reports, eight people were killed in the explosion. But agency reports revised the death toll upwards to 16, then to 25.

Daesh claimed what was the first-ever bombing of a Shiite mosque in Kuwait and the first terror attack in the Gulf state since January 2006.

Daesh claims attack

A Daesh terror group branch that refers to itself as the “Islamic State in the Province of Najd” (central Saudi Arabia) claimed responsibility for the attack on the mosque.

Najd Province claimed similar bombings at Shiite mosques in Saudi Arabia in recent weeks.

It named the bomber as Abu Sulaiman Al Muwahhid, adding that he was armed with a suicide belt, and targeted the “temple of the rejectionists”, using a pejorative reference to Shiites.

Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al Mubarak Al Sabah said on Friday that a suicide bombing at a Shi’ite Muslim mosque in the capital was an attempt to threaten the country’s national unity.

"This incident targets our internal front, our national unity," Shaikh Jaber told Reuters after visiting the wounded at the Emiri hospital. "But this is too difficult for them and we are much stronger than that."

Kuwaiti parliament member Khalil Al Salih said worshippers were kneeling in prayer when a loud explosion ripped through, damaging the walls and ceiling.

He said a suicide bomber who looked to be under 30 years of age caused the explosion and that he saw several bodies covered in blood on the floor.

They identified the target as the Imam Sadiq mosque.

Emir visits mosque

Kuwait’s emir, Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, immediately visited the site, and footage on state-run Kuwait Television showed him visibly moved by the scenes of carnage.

The television showed footage of massive destruction caused by the blast, and people posted online horrific pictures of the dead and wounded.

The Kuwaiti cabinet went into an emergency meeting to discuss the incident, as the interior ministry raised the level of alert and mobilised all security forces.

Kuwaiti media reported that a state of emergency was announced in several hospitals around the mosque.

Member of parliament Saleh Ashoor called on Kuwaitis to remain calm and “rally around the leadership”.

“Today we are all united in the face of terrorism and takfirist,” he said, referring to radical Muslims who declare Shiites as apostates. He also called on the government to “translate its words into deeds” and crack down on “those who declare Shiites as infidels and Zoroastrians and refer to their mosques as temples”.

The Gulf nation, which has a mixed population of Sunnis and Shiites, has enjoyed relative security and stability, despite often turbulent parliamentary politics.

Attack condemned

The UAE has strongly condemned the mosque attack in Kuwait. Bahraini foreign minister Shaikh Khaled Bin Ahmad also condemned the attack, saying on Twitter that it “is not sectarianism, but a war on Islam and a calculated [attempt at sowing] discord [among Muslims]”.

“The presence of [separate] mosques for Shiites and Sunnis is the bigger innovation. This is sectarianism par excellence,” he tweeted.

Prominent Salafist figure and former member of parliament Walid Tabtabai offered his condolences on Twitter but said that he suspected that Iran was behind the attack.

“The attack was the work of the people behind the Al Anood and Al Qadeeh (Shiite mosques in Saudi Arabia), and this party has been infiltrated by Iranian intelligence to create sectarian discord."

Investigation

Kuwaiti Shiites make up around one-third of the country’s native population of 1.3 million people. The interior ministry said it launched a full investigation into the incident.

Three weeks ago, the ministry said it has raised the level of security around mosques following the bombings in neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

The bombing was strongly condemned by political groups, organisations and lawmakers. The mainstream Sunni group, the Islamic Constitutional Movement condemned what it called “the low criminal attack targeting the (Shiite) mosque.”

Kuwait’s leading Sunni cleric, Sheikh Ajeel al-Nashmi, said on Twitter that the bombing is a “criminal act aimed at sowing seeds of discord, and undoubtedly Shiites and Sunnis will foil the terrorists’ plot.”

Independent MP Sultan Al-Shemmari called on the government to “hit with an iron fist” against the “terrorists.”

In the past few weeks, Kuwaiti courts have tried a number of people on charges of being Daesh members and sentenced at least one of them to several years in jail.

’We couldn’t see anything’

“We couldn’t see anything, so we went straight to the wounded and tried to carry them out. We left the dead,” said witness Hassan Al Haddad, 21, who said he saw several dead bodies.

Another witness, Ahmad Al Shawaf, said worshippers were standing shoulder to shoulder in group prayer when the explosion struck near the door of the mosque, behind some of the worshippers.

Al Shawaf said the explosion took place near the end of a second prayer that is traditional to Shiites and that follows the main midday Friday prayer.

He said witnesses standing behind him said they saw a man walk in, stand in the back with other congregants and detonate his device.

Mohammed Al Faili, 32, said that his 70-year-old father was killed in the explosion and two of his brothers were also wounded.

Speaking to the AP by telephone, he said he was not at the mosque at the time of the explosion but was heading to the morgue to identify his father’s body.