Britain suspended flights to and from Kenya last night after the threat level to UK civil aviation was raised to its highest level, ”imminent”, following warnings that one of the most wanted al-Qaeda suspects was believed to be planning another attack in east Africa.
The highest warning since September 11 was issued after Kenyan security services said that Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, the man believed to be behind the 1998 US embassy bombings and last year’s failed attempt to shoot down a plane carrying Israeli tourists from a holiday resort near Mombasa, had been sighted in the Somali capital of Mogadishu and was now thought to be operating in Kenya.
”We believe he’s in Mombasa now. He came back from Somalia,” said Matthew Kabetu, head of Kenya’s anti-terrorism unit. ”I cannot give specifics, but we are told he’s around … we are very concerned.”
But the Kenyan security minister Chris Murungaru said the ban on flights played into the hands of any would-be attackers. ”The action taken by the British government was extreme. Actions like this may make it appear like terrorists are making a moral score, a moral victory.”
Kenya was taking all necessary security precautions against terrorism, he said, adding that Nairobi would not introduce any similar restrictions on Kenyan airlines.
Intelligence sources in London said they had been provided with information that the al-Qaeda cell which fired two surface-to-air missiles at the Israeli airliner as it left the city last November were planning ”something similar”.
The decision to suspend flights followed ”very reliable information about an imminent attack on a western target” in Kenya.
The Department for Transport told airlines that ”the threat level to UK civil aviation interests in Kenya has increased to imminent,” adding ”accordingly, from 10pm tonight UK time all UK airline operations to and from Kenya must be suspended”.
British Airways said its Nairobi to London flight, due to leave Kenya at 8.25pm, would depart as normal, but the airline cancelled its daily departure to Kenya. It was making arrangements to transfer hundreds of passengers into Tanzania to fly them back to Britain.
Mohammed, a native of the Indian Ocean Comoros islands who carries a Kenyan passport, is accused of masterminding the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and November’s suicide bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in the Kenyan port of Mombasa. In the former attacks 224 people died and in the latter 16: almost all were Kenyan.
”Given that this fellow has been sighted in Mogadishu and the information gathered is that he has been coming in and going out [of Kenya], then we have to be on high alert,” said Douglas Kaunda, a spokesman for Kenya’s security ministry, yesterday.
”The minister said that there is already heightened surveillance of major installations, particularly western interests.”
The US embassy in Nairobi updated its security advice on Wednesday, warning of a high risk of terrorist attacks against US citizens.
Last night the Foreign Office changed its travel advice warning against non-essential trips to Kenya, including holidays. All British na tionals were advised to keep a low profile.
Kaunda said Mohammed was thought to use 17 different names, and hold various passports. His favourite alias was Harun. According to his FBI ”most-wanted” poster, Mohammed likes to wear baseball caps and dress casually, and he is good with computers.
In March, Kenya handed over another suspect in the embassy bombings, named as Suleiman Abdalla Salim Hemed, to US agents.
It is thought that there are around 1 200 Britons holidaying in Kenya, including about 100 with Thomson Holidays, the UK’s biggest tour operator.
”We are letting our clients out there know what the situation is and we are liaising with the Foreign Office and the Federation of Tour Operators,” a representative for the company said last night. ”We have suspended all Kenyan bookings for the next 10 days.”
Jake Grieves-Cook, chairman of the Kenya Tourism Federation, said: ”We understand this was a very specific threat, so we’re all hoping flights resume very shortly.” – Guardian Unlimited Â