Eight people, including one Israeli national, were killed in a suicide bomb blast near the Kenyan port city of Mombasa on Thursday, witnesses and a government official told AFP.
”At least one Israeli is dead and several others are injured,” said Kaunya Oku, the district commissioner of Kilifi District.
A journalist at the scene reported seeing seven other bodies.
”I can count eight dead bodies, seven Africans and one Israeli,” the journalist said.
The Israelis were checking in when a four-wheel drive tried to force its way into the Mombasa Paradise Hotel and exploded at around 8.25am (05:25 GMT).
There were three people in the car when it exploded, according to Oku. Some 130 Israelis were arriving at the hotel when the blast went off.
The hotel is situated about 25 kilometres north of Mombasa.
At about the same time a missile was fired toward an Israeli aircraft taking off from Mombasa, Israel’s Foreign Ministry and media reports said.
Col. Bonventur Wendo, director of the National Disaster Centre, said he no details about the missile attack.
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, with 260 passengers and 10 crew members aboard, had initially prepared for an emergency landing in Nairobi, but then decided to continue to Israel.
Ron Prosor, an Israeli Foreign Ministry representative said two missiles were fired toward the Israeli aircraft. The pilot saw a flash of light on the left side of the plane, said a company official, Shlomo Hanael.
Kenya was the scene of a terrorist attack on August 7, 1998, when a car bomb blast outside the US Embassy in Nairobi killed 219 people — including 12 Americans — and wounded 5 000.
A nearly simultaneous attack on the US Embassy in neighboring Tanzania killed 12 people and injured more than 80. – Sapa-AFP