DAN MCDOUGALL AND TIM CORNWELL

THE government was under growing pressure last night to explain why the UK issued no specific warning to British citizens ahead of the terrorist attack on an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya.

Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, insisted the government had received no intelligence pointing to either the suicide-bombing that killed 15 people in Mombasa or the virtually simultaneous missile attack on an Israeli airliner taking off.

However, Mr Straw struggled to address why the British Foreign Office had failed to upgrade its warnings, after it emerged that Australia told its citizens two weeks ago of "possible terrorist attacks against Western interests" in the Kenyan resort.

Mombasa is popular with Britons and Australians, as well as Israelis. Australia, whose government had been criticised for not heeding warnings before last month’s Bali nightclub bombing which killed almost 200 people, had told its citizens to avoid all "non-essential" travel there.

Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, the leader of the British-based radical Islamic group al-Muhajiroun, told the BBC that information suggesting an attack in East Africa had also been circulating in the Muslim community.

The Kenyan police confirmed that two American nationals were among a dozen people being held over the bomb attacks in Mombasa.

Yesterday, as interrogation experts from the Israeli intelligence service, Mossad, travelled to Kenya to aid the investigation in which three Israelis died, it emerged that secret on-board defences on a Tel-Aviv bound charter jet may have saved the 262 passengers and crew.

Yigal Eyal, a former Israeli intelligence agent, said Israel had been working anti-missile technology since the 1970s.

He said he was convinced it had been deployed by the Arkia passenger plane. Two heat-seeking missiles were reported to have passed so close to the plane’s wings that the passengers felt the jolt.

Eighty people were still in a Mombasa hospital yesterday after three suicide bombers drove a car into the lobby of the Israeli-owned Mombasa Paradise beach hotel on Thursday.

It came minutes after two shoulder-launched Strela missiles narrowly missed the plane full of Israeli tourists taking off from the nearby Mombasa international airport. Experts remain convinced that either Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network or an affiliated group was behind he attack.

In the wake of the Bali nightclub bombing on 12 October, the Foreign Office issued a general warning that UK nationals worldwide should be aware of "indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets in public places, including tourist sites".

It has only now amended its travel advice on Kenya to warn British tourists to be aware of "the threat posed by terrorism in East Africa". Mr Straw, in a letter to the shadow foreign secretary, Michael Ancram, yesterday said: "No information was available to the UK, US or Australia which could have prevented the attacks which took place in Mombasa."

He quoted his Australian counterpart, Alexander Downer, as saying that Australia had "no specific information about the timing, location or method of the possible attacks".

British intelligence is known to be sceptical of the value of issuing constant "travel directories" to tourists. Hard evidence of an impending terror attack may be better-used to catch the plotters rather than risk exposing sources with a public warning, it is thought.

Mr Straw faced demands from Mr Ancram to explain how Australia issued a warning on 12 November while Britain remained "silent". Mr Ancram also asked for "an urgent and fundamental review" of co-operation with international intelligence agencies.

Mr Straw said it would be "grossly inappropriate to give publicity to each piece of information we received".

-- Anonymous, December 01, 2002

Answers

Hard evidence of an impending terror attack may be better-used to catch the plotters rather than risk exposing sources with a public warning, it is thought.

I'm in agreement with this. I think the world should realize by now that travel abroad carries risks. if the people don't know that by now, well, too bad, so sad.

-- Anonymous, December 01, 2002