RE: Missiles fired at Israeli passanger jet
Kabir, Kenya is not a new target for terror, it was hit by Al Qaeda about 3 years ago.
‘Al Qaeda bombing’ kills 11
Thursday, November 28, 2002 Posted: 1029 GMT
Reports said four-wheel drive vehicle laden with explosives rammed into the Paradise hotel
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MOMBASA, Kenya (CNN) — Kenya’s ambassador to Israel says there is “no doubt” that al Qaeda was behind the car bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya and a missile attack on an Israeli airliner.
Eleven people were killed on Thursday by the suicide bomb at a hotel in Mombasa frequented by Israeli tourists, police told CNN.
Meanwhile, CNN’s Jerrold Kessel said an Arkia Airlines Boeing 757, which was carrying 260 passengers and 10 crew members, was hit by shrapnel after it took off from the port city on Thursday but the decision was taken to fly on to Israel.
Two Israeli children were among those who died when the suicide car bomb exploded in front of the Paradise hotel, Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Six of the victims were Kenyan, police said, adding that three suicide bombers also died. Around 80 others were injured as the explosion started a fire at the Paradise hotel.
Reports said a four-wheel drive vehicle laden with explosives rammed into the hotel lobby as 146 Israeli tourists were checking in at reception.
“There is no doubt in my mind that al Qaeda is behind this attack, because we have no domestic problems, no terrorism in our country, and we have no problem with our neighbours, no problem whatsoever,” Kenyan Ambassador John Sawe told Reuters.
A number of the the Kenyan victims were traditional dancers welcoming the tourists to the hotel, Abbas Gullet, Secretary-General of the Kenyan Red Cross, told CNN.
Kenyan journalist Victor Mwasi told CNN he had seen seven bodies, four burned beyond recognition. He said seven people had been taken to hospital after the attack in the hotel lobby.
“Just after a group of tourists were brought to the hotel, I saw a white Pajero forcing its way into the gate,” a barman at a hotel across the road from the Mombasa Paradise, told Reuters, adding the attack happened at about 8.30 a.m. (0530 GMT).
“It had three people of Arabic origin and after it got to the reception area I heard an explosion and the whole hotel was on fire.”
The casualty unit manager at the city’s main hospital, the Aga Khan hospital, told Reuters by telephone he had received about six casualties from the blast.
“They are all non-Kenyan and have different injuries. Some have bruises, others have deep cuts and some have metal objects stuck in their bodies.”
In the missile attack on the plane, preparations had been made for an emergency landing at Nairobi, Kenya, Kessel said, but after an hour in the air it was determined there was little damage to the plane and no injuries to passengers.
The jet, Flight 582, is scheduled to land in Tel Aviv early on Thursday afternoon. The Israeli airline El Al cancelled all incoming international flights until further notice following the missile attack, Israeli radio reported.
Said foreign minister Netanyahu: “It means that terror organsations and the regimes behind them are able to arm themselves with weapons which can cause mass casualties anywhere and everywhere.
“Today, they’re firing the missiles at Israeli planes, tomorrow they’ll fire missiles at American planes, British planes, every country’s aircraft. Therefore, there can be no compromise with terror.”
In the hotel bombing, Israeli television said a car crashed through a barrier and someone inside threw explosives. A woman who gave her name as Neima said she had just arrived at the Paradise hotel with a group of tourists from Israel when the hotel was shaken by the blast.
“People were cut up in the legs, arm, all over their bodies. Everything was burned up,” she told Israel Radio by telephone, according to Reuters.
Al Qaeda was blamed the Nairobi embassy bomb in which 219 died
“Almost all the guests are Israelis. A few Kenyans were also hurt, but it was mostly Israelis.”
CNN’s Catherine Bond says that Mombasa is a popular tourist destination for Israelis. The hotel, she says, has previously had Israeli troops staying there. Kessel said there was little doubt these were terrorist attacks against Israeli interests.
Kenya has seen previous terrorist attacks against Western interests.
An August 7, 1998, blast at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi killed 219 people — including 12 Americans — and wounded 5,000. A nearly simultaneous attack on the U.S. Embassy in neighbouring Tanzania killed 12 people and injured more than 80.
The United States sentenced four men to life in prison without parole for their roles in the attacks. It accused them of having links to Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda terrorist network, who were also blamed for the September 11 attacks on the United States last year.
Mombasa is frequented by U.S. Navy vessels assigned to the Indian Ocean. Although the ships bring much-needed dollars to the city of one million, many of the mostly Muslim residents express ambivalence toward Americans.
Muslims are a minority in Kenya as a whole, officially accounting for 10 percent of the country’s 29 million people.
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