Kenya terrorists used Somalia

2003-11-05 08:24

Nairobi - Al-Qaeda terrorists who attacked a Kenyan resort hotel and an Israeli-owned airliner last year, plotted their attack and obtained their weapons in Somalia and hid out in the Horn of African nation afterward, a draft UN report concluded.

At least four of the terrorists remain in Somalia, the report by a UN-appointed panel of experts said.

"On at least one occasion in the past 12 months, arms delivered illegally to Somalia were employed in the commission of a terrorist act in Kenya," it said of the attempt to shoot down the airliner.

"Although that particular attack was unsuccessful, the panel believes that additional weapons may have been imported into Somalia solely for the purpose of carrying out further terrorist attacks in neighbouring states."

The panel was appointed by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan for a six-month period to investigate violations of a 1992 arms embargo imposed against Somalia.

Three Israeli tourists and 12 Kenyans were killed when suicide bombers rammed a car loaded with explosives into the Paradise Hotel on Kenya's coast on November 28. Almost simultaneously, two surface-to-air missiles were fired at an Israeli charter jet taking off from nearby Mombasa.

Investigators believe Fazul Abdullah Mohammed - a native of Comoros who is on the FBI most-wanted list - masterminded the attacks. Mohammed has also been indicted by a US court for the US embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in 1998.

Shortly after the embassy attacks, al-Qaeda's East Africa network began to reorganise under Mohammed's leadership, assembling along the Kenyan-Somali coast, the UN report said. Ideological orientation

The cell first gathered in Mogadishu in November 2001, and senior members "provided junior members with ideological orientation and small arms training," it said.

A month later, the group dispersed and several members returned to Kenya. By April 2002, the targets had been identified, the report said.

The two shoulder-fired SA-7B missiles fired at the Israeli plane were delivered to Somalia from Yemen before being smuggled by sea to Kenya in August 2002, it said.

Ahead of the attacks, the terrorists divided into four groups: one was to attack the Paradise Hotel; another, led by Fazul, was to attack the airline; a third was in Mogadishu; and a fourth was sent to Lamu, an island off the Kenyan coast, to prepare the terrorists' escape to Somalia, the report said.

"The day after the attacks, the surviving members of the team regrouped in Lamu and departed two days later for Somalia by boat," it said. "Most of the team remained in Mogadishu for several months after the attacks.

One of the team, Suleiman Abdalla Salim Hemed, was seized by Somali gunmen in Mogadishu in March and handed over to US officials. Kenyan Security Minister Chris Murungaru said then that Hemed had also participated in the 1998 embassy bombings and provided useful information about all of the attacks.

- AP