/ 8 November 2004

Terror trial resumes in Kenya

The trial of three Kenyans charged with plotting the bombing of the United States embassy in Kenya in August 1998, which killed more than 200 people, resumed in the Kenyan capital on Monday after a three-month break.

Mohammed Khamis, Mohammed Kubwa Seif and Said Saggar Ahmed, who were in court, are charged with planning the bombing, which killed 213 people, including 12 Americans.

The US embassy in Dar es Salaam, in neighbouring Tanzania, was bombed at nearly the same time, killing 11 people.

The men are also on trial for their alleged involvement in planning the car bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa in November 2002, in which 18 people died, and of the simultaneous attempt to shoot down an Israel-bound passenger jet.

Up to now, 31 witnesses out of about 40 have testified.

On Monday, Kenyan police Constable Ronald Chai, who at the time of the November 2002 attacks was patrolling the sprawling airport in the Indian Ocean city of Mombasa, gave evidence in court and identified a shoulder-held missile launcher that was allegedly used in the attempt to blow the Israeli airliner out of the sky.

Chai, however, could not identify any of the three suspects in court on Monday. — Sapa-AFP