ugnet_: Kenyan leader heads for terror talks in the US-BBC

Omar Kezimbira Mon, 02 Dec 2002 09:44:10 -0800

Monday, 2 December, 2002, 15:03 GMT

Kenyan leader heads for terror talks

Investigators search site of hotel blast

Israel has vowed to track down the organisers

Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi is due to leave the country on Monday for security talks in the United States about the Mombasa attacks.

He is expected to meet President George W Bush in Washington on Thursday.

President Moi next to the missile launchers used to fire at the plane

Moi is standing down later this month

The Kenyan leader has reportedly accused the West of failing to provide adequate support for Kenya after the attacks, in which suicide bombers killed 13 people at an Israeli-owned hotel near the city, and a packed Israeli airliner narrowly escaped destruction.

New details of the hotel attack have emerged, with a farmer living close to the scene saying that he unwittingly chatted to the bombers just minutes before they drove their explosives-packed car at the Paradise Hotel.

Khamis Haro Deche described seeing two Arabs inside the car, one of whom spoke to him after they parked briefly in his farmyard, close to the hotel.


	:	Kenya attacks


Click here to see images of the attacks in Kenya

The suspects said they were waiting for a third man coming from the Paradise Hotel up the road.

Soon after they drove off, and minutes after the failed anti-aircraft missile attack at the city's airport, the bombers rammed the car into the hotel.

High alert

An official in Mr Moi's office told Reuters news agency that his trip had been planned before the attacks but was always intended to focus on the US-led "war on terror".

Regional diplomats say that Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi will join Mr Moi's talks with Mr Bush.

In Israel, a senior defence official has said that all of the country's civilian aircraft could be fitted with anti-missile radar scrambling technology within months.

Giora Shlagi, head of the government's Rafael Armament Development Authority, told Yediot Aharanot newspaper that helicopters were already equipped with the system which consists of sensors and a scrambler.

It is unclear whether the airliner which was targeted while taking off from Mombasa had been equipped with the technology.

Suspects

Kenyan investigators are considering an Israeli request to take some of the evidence to Israel for further study.

Pieces of metal found amid the ruins of hotel were part of a "welding gas cylinder" used to make the bomb, investigator Charles Juma said.

Ariel view of Paradise Hotel

Al-Ittihad al-Islamiya

Also known as the Islamic Union

Suspected of downing US helicopters in 1993

Suspected links to al-Qaeda

See also:

Who are al-Ittihad?

William Langat, a senior Kenyan police officer involved in the probe, denied media reports that the Israelis had already taken some of the evidence.

Kenyan authorities are still questioning 10 people detained in connection with the attacks.

Those detained, six Pakistanis and four Somalis, say they are shark fishermen whose boat had become waterlogged. They have still not been charged.

The Islamic militant network al-Qaeda has been a prime suspect in the attacks because of their relative sophistication.

On Sunday, Israel reiterated its belief that the group was to blame.

However, Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz admitted there was no "concrete" evidence of a link to the group.

But United States officials have said they believe a Somali-based Islamic group may have carried out the attacks.

The officials say the group, Al-Ittihad al-Islamiya (AIAI), also known as the Islamic Union, is a prominent militant organisation in the Horn of Africa with links to al-Qaeda.