Israel army teams begin evacuating tourists injured in Kenyan hotel suicide attack

Friday, November 29th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

MOMBASA, Kenya (AP) _ An Israeli army team on Friday began evacuating tourists injured in the deadly suicide bombing of an Israel-owned hotel. Kenyan police said they picked up 12 people for questioning in connection with the blast and a simultaneous attempted attack on an Israeli airliner.

The death toll in the bombing rose to 16 as rescue workers recovered the body of another Kenyan on Friday, a health official said. The blast at the Paradise Hotel killed 10 Kenyans, three Israelis and the three suicide bombers.

Gilad Millo, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said 235 tourists, including 15 injured in the blast and the bodies of the three Israelis, were flown home Friday. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sent his official plane to carry some of the Israelis.

Police said 12 people were picked up for questioning in the Mombasa area, but gave no details. One of them had an American passport and was staying at a Mombasa area hotel, hotel staff said.

About five minutes before the hotel blast, two missiles streaked past a Boeing 757 Israeli charter aircraft owned by Arkia Airlines as it left Mombasa airport bound for Tel Aviv, Israel.

Police said witnesses told them the missiles were fired from a four-wheel drive vehicle one mile from the airport. The witnesses said they saw three or four Arab-looking men in the vehicle. Investigators found two missile casings near the airport.

The plane with 261 passengers and 10 crew members landed safely in Tel Aviv with no casualties.

The Israeli army sent a team of 150 doctors, psychologists and soldiers to Kenya's Indian Ocean coast _ a popular tourist destination _ after the attacks.

``The situation is a disaster. An Israeli does not know where to go,'' said Yossi Msika, a tourist, as he walked toward the plane for the flight home to Israel.

Two seriously injured Kenyans were also being taken to Israel for treatment at the request of the Kenyan government, Israeli officials said.

In a statement in Beirut, Lebanon, the previously unknown Army of Palestine claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying they were timed ``to strike at Israeli interests'' on the eve of the anniversary of the 1947 decision by the United Nations to partition Palestine and allow creation of a Jewish state.

However, Israeli government adviser Zalman Shoval said al-Qaida's past activities in East Africa and the nature of the attacks pointed to that group.

Al-Qaida carried out almost simultaneous bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August 1998. The bombings killed 231 people _ including 12 Americans _ and injured about 5,000.

Israel Army Radio, citing unspecified Arab media, identified one of the suspects in the Kenya attacks as Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah. A man by that name has been indicted in the United States for the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, which were blamed on al-Qaida. However, the radio report could not be confirmed.

If al-Qaida were responsible for the attack, it would be its first on Israeli targets.

``We can't rule out the group that struck at us in 1998,'' Kenyan Vice President Musalia Mudavadi said, alluding to al-Qaida. He said that during the last six months, Kenyan intelligence had been picking up signals that the country could be targeted by terrorists.

Sheik Omar Bakri Mohammed, head of Al-Muhajiroun, a militant Islamic group in London that recruits on university campuses and encourages members to join armed struggles abroad, said Friday he had been aware for several days of a threat to East Africa. Australia's foreign ministry said it also had received vague warnings.

Bakri Mohammed, who is closely monitored by British security officials because of his radical views, said unspecified warnings had been posted on Web sites and on Internet chat rooms.

``The warning has been sent to the Muslim community around the world ... that Israel would pay a heavy price in East Africa,'' he told the British Broadcasting Corp.

The hotel attack was a grim reminder of last month's bombing of a disco on the Indonesian resort island of Bali that killed more than 190 people, mostly foreign tourists.

Sharon has put the Mossad spy agency in charge of investigating the twin attacks. By Friday , Israeli and U.S. security officials were combing the hotel area for clues.

The deadly attack on the 160-bed hotel occurred as new guests were checking in and others were eating breakfast.

Witnesses said a four-wheel drive vehicle smashed through the main gate to the hotel compound and stopped in front of the lobby.

Some witnesses said that three men who looked like Arabs were in the car. One ran into the lobby and blew himself up, while the others remained in the vehicle as it exploded.

The blasts shattered windows along the front of the hotel, gutted the building and incinerated vehicles parked nearby. Stone walls were all that remained of the lobby.

President Bush, informed of the attacks during a Thanksgiving Day intelligence briefing at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, denounced the violence and offered U.S. help in the investigation.

The 15-nation European Union also said the attacks underlined the need ``for international cooperation against terrorism in all its forms.''