The young man landed before dawn at Kuwait’s gleaming international airport, authorities said — and within hours had carried out one of the deadliest acts of domestic terrorism to strike the normally tranquil Persian Gulf emirate.
Kuwaiti officials said Sunday that the suicide bomber who killed at least 27 worshipers at a Shiite Muslim mosque on Friday was Saudi Arabian, bringing a new level of disquiet to an episode that has already shaken the tiny state.
With it, Kuwaitis saw devastating proof that Sunni-Shiite rivalries that have roiled the Persian Gulf region were spilling across their borders.