Breaking News Thursday, November 28, 2002 Updated 0900GMT

By Nation Team

Hotel Paradise smoulders after the morning terrorist attack as some onlookers stare in disbelief.

Over 10 Israeli nationals and hotel workers are feared dead after suicide bombers attacked a hotel patronized by Israelis at Kikambala about 25 kilometres from Mombasa at 8 am this morning.

A simultaneous attack on an Israeli charter plane at Mombasa Airport failed when missiles fired at it missed the target as the plane was getting airborne. None of the 264 passengers and crew were injured and the plane continued on its journey to Tel Aviv.

At the hotel initial reports indicate that a four-wheel drive vehicle with four men drove past the security barrier before ramming into the reception desk of the reed thatched two-storeyed hotel. The attack occurred at 8.02 am.

In an attack similar to the one that brought down the US Embassy in Nairobi in August 1998, the suicide bombers rammed the vehicle at the reception desk and exploded instantly, killing the four bombers and an unknown number of guests and employees.

By the time of going to the press, nobody had yet claimed responsibility.

The bodies of the four attackers were burnt beyond recognition. Bodies of five of their victims, one white and four Africans were stewn at the reception area. Other bodies were littered at the lobby of the hotel which had collapsed and was reduced rubble by the explosion.

A light aircraft flew over the hotel minutes after the attack, dropping small bombs, flattening the 146-roomed hotel which was fully booked at the time of the attack. A panoramic view of the what used to be Paradise tourist hotel, bombed by terrorist earlier today.

Preliminary reports indicate that prior to the attack at the airport, a four wheel drive had been spotted leaving the perimeter fence of the facility. The missiles fired from an open field at Jomvu near the offices of the Israeli-owned Zakhem Construction Company.

Three years ago, an Egyptian plane reportedly carrying fish crashed killing all the 10 people on board.

It was not immediately clear where the Pajero vehicle, suspected to have been used to ferry shoulder missile launchers was driven to. Police were combing the area in search of the vehicle and its driver and passengers.

Minutes before the suicide bombers arrived at the hotel gate, several vans carrying the Israeli guests had checked in. Some buildings adjacent to the hotel were set ablaze by the explosion.

Many of the guests were injured and were rushed to various hospitals in Mombasa, while other hospitals in Nairobi were placed on high alert to receive some of the injured.

Reports say that the plane belonged to Al Kia, the second largest airline after El Al, the Israeli national airline.

-- Anonymous, November 28, 2002

Answers

See also this thread

Note that Thomas McInearney (sp?), ex-mil talking head on Fox made it very clear this is the beginning of a new AQ offensive.

-- Anonymous, November 28, 2002

Thursday, 28 November, 2002, 15:19 GMT Israelis targeted in Kenya attacks

Aerial view of the Paradise Hotel after bombing. The hotel was popular among Israeli tourists

At least 14 people have died in a suicide bombing at an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, just as two missiles were fired at an Israeli holiday jet that had taken off from the city's airport.

The missiles narrowly missed the jet, but a large part of the Paradise Hotel was reduced to rubble and the rest is a smouldering shell.

Kenyan police said the 14 killed included three suicide bombers, six Kenyans and two Israelis.

About 80 people were injured in the attack, most of them Kenyans. A doctor at Coast General Hospital in Mombasa told the BBC that 40 injured had been admitted, three of them in critical condition.

The police have detained two people who were in the area of the hotel bombing.

In Lebanon, a previously unknown group called the Army of Palestine has said it carried out the attacks.

But Kenyan and Israeli officials speculated that Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network might have been behind the attacks.

If it is confirmed as the work of al-Qaeda, this would be the first direct attack on Israelis by the group - despite the hostility towards Israel normally shown by Bin Laden in recordings of his speeches.

Mombasa on Kenya's Indian Ocean coast is a popular destination for foreign visitors and the hotel was frequented mainly by Israeli tourists.

Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi said his country would "fight those behind the terrorist attack on Mombasa".

Election day attack

One witness at the hotel said: "People were cut up in the legs, arms, all over their bodies. Everything was burned up".

Eyewitnesses said that an all-terrain vehicle with three men on board had crashed through a barrier outside the hotel and headed towards the lobby.

One man got out and ran towards the reception, where he set off an explosion, while the two others stayed in the vehicle, which blew up at the same time, witnesses said.

"Black smoke was billowing everywhere, the thatched roofs were falling in, then we heard screaming and wailing," one witness, Kelly Hartog, told the BBC.

The blast occurred just after some 60 visitors had checked into the hotel, all of them from Israel, hotel officials said.

Most of the Kenyan victims are said to be traditional dancers who had been on hand to welcome the new arrivals.

If these terrorists have scores to settle, let them fight the battles in their own countries

Al-Manar television in Lebanon later reported a short statement from a group called the Army of Palestine claiming responsibility for the attacks.

The group said it wanted the world to hear the "voice of the refugees" on the 55th anniversary of the partition of Palestine.

The attacks happened within a few minutes of each other, after 0800 local time (0500 GMT).

They coincide with important primary elections in Israel, with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon facing a party leadership challenge from Foreign Minister Binyamin Netanyahu ahead of January's general election.

Mr Netanyahu called the attacks a "grave escalation of terror against Israel".

He warned that such an escalation would also "threaten the entire world's air traffic".

Near-miss

The airliner - with about 260 people on board - landed safely at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv about five hours after the missile attack.

Israeli F-15 fighter jets escorted the plane into the airport and relieved passengers broke into tears and sang a traditional Israeli song.

The plane belongs to the Arkia charter company, which has a regular weekly service flying tourists between Tel Aviv and Mombasa.

Pilot Rafi Marik said he saw two white smoke trails passing "not very far" from the left wing of the aircraft before disappearing after a few seconds.

Some of the passengers said they heard a loud noise just after take-off, but were told by the crew that it was a technical problem.

Kenyan police said two missile casings had been found about two kilometres from Mombasa airport.

Police spokesman King'ori Mwangi "three or four men with Arab features" had been seen in a white vehicle that fled the scene.

In 1998, Kenya and neighbouring Tanzania were attacked in nearly simultaneous car bombings that killed 219 people and 12 people respectively at the US embassies in each country.

The attacks were blamed on al-Qaeda by the United States.

In his most recent recorded message, broadcast on 12 November, Bin Laden called on governments in the West to distance themselves from the US and Israel.

If they did not, he said, they would face bombings and killings similar to the recent attack on a nightclub in a tourist resort in Bali, Indonesia, that killed about 200 people.

-- Anonymous, November 28, 2002