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
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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.
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 footage of the Paradise Hotel]()
Ariel view of Paradise
Hotel
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Al-Ittihad
al-Islamiya
Also known as the Islamic Union
Suspected of downing US helicopters in 1993
Suspected links to al-Qaeda
See also:
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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.
