Saudi Arabia Arrests Al-Zahrani Brothers, ISIS Militants Implicated In Kuwait City Bombing

Saudi Arabian state news agencies reported Tuesday three Saudi brothers were arrested for their connection to the Kuwait City bombing June 26 that killed 27 people. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack.

The three brothers were "parties to the crime of the sinful terrorist bombing that targeted the Imam al-Sadeq mosque in Kuwait," the SPA state news agency cited a security spokesman for the Saudi Interior Ministry as saying.

The Saudi brothers were identified as Majed, Mohammed and Faisal al-Zahrani. Majed and Mohammed al-Zahrani allegedly drove across the border into Kuwait the day before the attack and carried the explosives in an ice cooler, Kuwait's Interior Ministry said in a statement. The explosives were the same type used in two suicide bombings May 22 and May 29 in Shiite mosques in eastern Saudi Arabia.

IBTimes reported the arrest of Faisal al-Zahrani Monday when Saudi security forces raided homes of several suspected terrorists who reportedly have ties to the Islamic State group. The raid took place in the town of al-Khafji on the Kuwait border. Saudi Arabia state television reported police arrested Faisal Mohammed al-Zahrani, one of the 16 suspects thought to have helped carry out deadly attacks on Shiite mosques in the eastern part of the country earlier this summer. One officer was shot during the raid.

Last month Saudi Arabia announced the names of 16 men linked to the May 29 suicide bombing outside al-Anoud Mosque in Dammam, which killed four people, and the May 22 attack at the Imam Ali bin Abi Talib Mosque in Qudayh, which killed 21 people. Al-Zahrani was on that list, but little else is known about him. A suicide bomber detonated his explosive belt at the al-Anoud Mosque and killed four people. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for both attacks.

The raid in eastern Saudi Arabia comes little more than a week after militants affiliated with the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, attacked a Shiite mosque in Kuwait. The raid in eastern Saudi Arabia could point to the government's concern the ISIS threat is growing in the country.