OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday 10.00PM.
TANZANIAN police have arrested three groups of suspects in relation to the bombing of the United States embassy in Dar es Salaam on Friday, the Tanzanian government has announced. Police have not yet given further details about the arrests.
Ten people died and some 60 were injured in the blast.
The death toll in the much bigger explosion outside the US embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, has risen to 184 and around 5000 wounded. Of those, some 500 are still in hospital, 25 in critical condition.
Twelve Americans died, including the consul general, Julian Bartley, and his 20-year-old son Jay. Some 40 Kenyans employed at the embassy also lost their lives. Another 40 people are still unaccounted for, including 12 young women who were students at a secretarial school in Ufundi House, the five-story building next to the embassy which collapsed in the explosion.
An Israeli rescue team, assisted by a French army civil defence team, are working alongside Kenyan rescuers to search the rubble of Ufundi House using sniffer dogs and sensitive sound equipment. Although hope of finding further survivors fades by the hour, on Monday rescuers thought they detected sounds indicating that some people may still be alive in the ground floor of the building. The ground floor is buried beneath rubble from the collapsed upper floors, but did itself collapse.
Kenyan president Daniel arap Moi has declared five days of national mourning. He told reporters that there were some leads in the investigation into the bombing, but would not elaborate. He said that whoever was responsible were terrorists who had targeted innocent people in a peaceful country. “Even if they wanted the US embassy, they should not have targeted Kenya,” he told reporters. “Kenyans are peaceful people. How can they expect Kenyans to support their cause?”
A second South African relief flight has flown medical supplies to Nairobi at the request of the Kenyan government, as medical supplies were running out in Nairobi hospitals over the weekend. The Boeing remains on standby at Waterkloof air base near Pretoria should further assistance be needed.