20 held for embassy bombs
2003-12-01 08:05
Nairobi - Kenyan police have arrested at least 20 people in connection with the 1998 bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi, a senior police official said on Sunday.
"It is true that some arrests have been made in connection with the 1998 bombing of the US embassy. The arrests cannot be less than 20 people," the official, who did not want to be named, told reporters.
In August 1998, US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam were destroyed by massive car-bomb attacks claimed by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, killing 224 people, including 12 Americans.
The arrests were made after "crucial and believable leads" were made available to officers in Kenya's anti-terrorism police unit, the officer added.
On Saturday, Security Minister Chris Murungaru told the East African Standard newspaper that 25 people had been rounded up in an expanded operation to bring the embassy bombing culprits to book.
"The total number of suspects exceeded 25 and some of them are on the international (US) most wanted list," Murungaru told the paper, adding that: "There are terrorists operating in this country."
Police are also still hunting Comoran national Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, already on a wanted list in the US for his alleged involvement in the twin attacks on the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.
On November 28 last year, suicide bombers blew up the Israeli-owned Mombasa Paradise hotel in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa, killing 12 Kenyans, three Israelis and three presumed bombers.
Moments ealier, an Israeli jet narrowly missed being hit by shoulder-launched missiles.
On Friday, police charged three Kenyans - Mohammed Kubwa Seif, Said Saggar Ahmed, and Salmin Mohammed Khamis - who had earlier been implicated in the Mombasa bombing, with conspiracy to bomb the US embassy in Nairobi this year using a truck packed with explosives or crashing a plane onto the facility.
The US embassy closed several times this year, sometimes after general alerts of terrorist activities in the region