Sounding confused and sad, Sulaiman Al-Gabbaa, the father of Fahad Al-Gabbaa, said: “An evil hand has sent my son to his death.”

Al-Gabbaa said he was shocked to hear on television that his son was involved in the bombing of a Shiite mosque on Friday that left 27 dead.

“I spoke with my son four days before the incident. He had asked me about going to a mosque and making itikaaf (contemplation and prayer in a mosque). I was surprised to learn he was the terrorist who bombed the mosque in Kuwait,” Al-Gabbaa said in an interview published Tuesday in a local publication.

Al-Gabbaa said he had noticed his son acting in a “suspicious” manner because he stayed indoors. “He was working at a restaurant in Riyadh, and had been divorced after a short marriage. He had lived in Qassim for four months at the start of his marriage, then returned to my house in Riyadh.”

He said that he did not know how Fahad became radicalized. “He was at home a long time and did not go to any conflict areas. Fahad was very good to me, his mother and brothers. He was the second of four children,” he said.