Al-Qaeda suspects arrested

2003-11-29 18:26

Nairobi - Kenyan authorities have arrested more than two dozen suspects wanted for two al-Qaeda attacks, including some on the FBI's most wanted list, a senior government official said.

The suspects, including several alleged masterminds, are accused of taking part in the 1998 car bombing of the US Embassy in Nairobi and the November 2002 attack on a coastal hotel in Mombasa, National Security Minister Christopher Murungaru told the East African Standard newspaper.

Most of the suspects are foreigners and were rounded up by Kenyan authorities and foreign security agencies in a recent anti-terror operation, Murungaru told the paper, which gave no other details.

Some were arrested in neighbouring Somalia, Murungaru said.

The minister refused to identify the suspects. Although a few are wanted by the FBI, the Kenyan government does not plan to extradite them to the United States, Murungaru said.

US and Kenyan officials were not immediately available for comment.

US agents are reportedly hunting down al-Qaeda suspects in Somalia, which the United States and United Nations have cited as a haven for terrorists

In March, with the help of a Somali warlord, they nabbed Suleiman Abdalla Salim Hemed, who is accused of playing a role in the embassy bombing.

Later that month, Murungaru claimed credit for Hemed's capture and said he was turned over to US authorities, who have refused to comment.

Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terror network claimed responsibility for the attack in November 2002 in Mombasa that killed 15 people as well as the August 1998 embassy bombings in Nairobi and in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in which 231 people died.

- AP