A truck bomb exploded outside a hotel popular with Israeli tourists on the Kenyan coast today, killing at least eight people.
A witness reported that a four wheel drive vehicle packed with explosives rammed into the Paradise hotel, an Israeli-owned establishment about 25 kilometres north of the port city of Mombasa.
”I can see eight bodies in the lobby. Most appear to be adult men,” one of the witnesses told Reuters.
The Kenyan ambassador in Israel was quoted by Reuters as saying that there was no doubt al-Qaeda was behind the blast, while Israel army radio said Israeli security officials were looking into the possibility that the attacks were carried out by al-Qaeda.
Aharon Hammel, who owns a hotel in Kikambala near the Paradise, told Israel army radio: ”I can see the bodies of local residents. I don’t know about the Israelis. The whole hotel is burned. The whole hotel. There is a lot of smoke. The whole hotel is burned totally, both wings, the lobby and everything, it’s all burned.”
Police representative Kimgori Mwangi told BBC World television that six Kenyans were among the dead. Israeli television reported that three Israelis had died. The Israeli foreign minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, said two Israeli children were among the dead.
Hospital sources said at least six people had been injured after the bomb went off at about 8am local time (0500 GMT). Colonel Bonventur Wendo, director of Kenya’s national disaster centre, said police and intelligence officers were at scene.
”I heard a loud explosion,” an Israeli hotel guest, identified only as Rami, told Israel TV’s Channel Two. Another guest, Osnat, said there were many wounded, including a number of children. Some of the wounded were taken to a nearby small hospital.
One or two missiles may also have been fired at an Israeli jet as it took off from Mombasa today with 270 passengers and crew on board.
Col Wendo said he had no details of the attack, but Ron Prosor, an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, said two missiles were fired toward the Israeli plane. The pilot saw a flash of light on the left side of the plane, said a company official, Shlomo Hanael.
An official at the Israeli embassy said he had heard the reports but said he could not confirm whether a missile was fired.
The aircraft belonging to the Arkia charter company was lightly damaged, but no one aboard was hurt, Israel TV’s Channel Two said. The aircraft had initially prepared for an emergency landing in Nairobi, but then decided to continue to Israel. Kenya was the scene of a major terrorist attack on August 7 1998, when a car bomb blast outside the US Embassy in Nairobi killed 219 people — the vast majority Kenyan — and wounded 5 000.
A nearly simultaneous attack on the US embassy in neighbouring Tanzania killed 12 people and injured more than 80.
US prosecutors indicted al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in connection with both bombings.
Netanyahu said a missile attack would signal ”a very dangerous escalation of terror”.
”It means that terror organisations 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,” Netanyahu said.
Israel was sending a plane with doctors to Kenya to help treat and evacuate the wounded. – Guardian Unlimited (c) Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001