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Al-Qaida linked to Kenya attacks
©Associated Press WASHINGTON -- American counterterror officials said Monday that mounting evidence indicated al-Qaida was behind last week's attacks in Kenya, pointing to missile launchers used in the attack and a claim of responsibility on an extremist Islamic Web site. U.S. authorities regard the al-Qaida claim, posted on the Web site www.azfalrasas.com, as credible, officials told the Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity. They said the government has obtained other, unspecified information that suggests Osama bin Laden's organization was responsible for Thursday's attacks, which targeted Israelis on an airplane and at a hotel in Mombasa, Kenya. The Web site statement called the attacks a Ramadan greeting to the Palestinian people and referred to al-Qaida's deadly attacks in 1998 against U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. "At the same place where the "Jewish Crusader coalition' was hit four years ago . . . here the fighters of al-Qaida came back once again to strike heavily against that evil coalition. But this time, it was against Jews," the statement said in Arabic. In addition, two antiaircraft missile launchers recovered after a failed attack on the airliner are from the same production batch as one that an al-Qaida operative fired in Saudi Arabia at a U.S. military plane in May, officials said. The portable heat-seeking missiles probably were obtained as a group, the officials said. In Thursday's attacks, two missiles were launched at an Israeli charter airliner just after it took off from Mombasa for Tel Aviv, Israel, with 261 passengers and 10 crew members. Both missed, and the Arkia Airlines Boeing 757 landed safely at its destination. About the same time, a vehicle bomb exploded at an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa, killing 10 Kenyans, three Israelis and the three bombers. To make the missile connection, investigators compared the serial numbers on the two discarded launchers found with the number on the launch tube recovered outside Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia seven months ago. The numbers were close, officials said. Thousands of this kind of missile, known in Western countries as the SA-7b Grail, have been produced in Russia, Eastern Europe, China, Yugoslavia, Egypt and elsewhere. They chase the heat produced by an airplane engine and explode but are effective only while the target plane is flying low and slow. At least one of the people who fired the missiles was trained in bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan, and the missiles were smuggled into Kenya from a neighboring country, according to sources in Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, who spoke to AP on the condition of anonymity. The Web statement attributed to al-Qaida insinuated threats of attacks on aviation. "These two operations put thousands of question marks and exclamation points in front of the allied countries that spent millions on programs to protect airplanes from the inside. Here are the fighters attacking them from the outside," it says. The five-page claim was made in the name of "The Political Office of al-Qaida Jihad Organization." Unlike four years ago, when the United States was the target in Kenya, the statement said this time the message was for Jews. "We send them (Jews) a message: Your practices in corrupting the Earth, occupying sacred places, criminal acts against our families in Palestine . . . all your practices will not pass peacefully without firing back," it said. "Your children for ours, your women for ours, your elders for ours. . . . And in return for (your) siege on lives and livelihoods, a siege of fear and terror that we will impose on you wherever you are, land, sea or air." It pledged that further attacks would be carried out, saying, "It is a war between faith and the infidel, between right and wrong, between justice and injustice." The statement called the U.S.-led war on terrorism "fragile," saying that fighters successfully attacked the Kenya hotel "at a time when the whole world stands against them, and indeed is hunting them." Someone listing an address in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, registered the Internet address for the site, which is published on computers owned by a company in Texas, Internet records show. Despite the fresh links to al-Qaida, the investigation in Kenya was otherwise off to a slow start, according to the Los Angeles Times. Six Pakistani seamen have yet to be interrogated nearly a week after police detained them after the attacks. The main reason for the delay? Investigators have been unable to find a translator, despite a significant number of Pakistani nationals here. Four Somalis, who were seized with the Pakistanis from a wooden dhow named the Mogadishu, also have yet to be questioned even though Kenyan police have Somali-speaking officers in their ranks. A senior police official assured reporters Monday that investigators will interrogate the Somali men soon. But critics say the probe represents a classic case of how not to conduct an investigation. The stakes remain high because investigators could determine whether militant Palestinians and al-Qaida are working together against Israeli targets. Many people have questioned whether Kenyan police are able to lead the investigation despite assurances from Kenyan Internal Security Minister Julius Sunkuli. Israeli investigators have ridiculed their Kenyan counterparts, saying that "their only use is to smile at you." Kenyan Deputy Police Commissioner William Langat, one of the lead investigators, surprised foreign reporters Monday when he disclosed that the 10 seamen from the Mogadishu fishing vessel had not been interviewed. Police say the men, who have not been charged, did not have appropriate travel documents when their leaky craft docked here for repairs. Langat said investigators have so far found no link to al-Qaida.
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From the Times wire desk
From the AP |
