Mombasa attacks 'a dangerous escalation of terror'

NAIROBI/JERUSALEM - A senior Israeli diplomatic source said last night that the blasts in Mombasa yesterday were another wake-up call from hell by al Qaeda.

At least 11 people were killed by a car bomb which rammed into a hotel used by Israeli tourists in the Kenyan port and at the city's airport, two missiles were fired at an Israeli Boeing 757 Arkia charter airliner carrying 261 passengers and 10 crew as it took off.

Reports said the plane was hit by shrapnel.

Shlomo Hanael from Arkia said: "The crew reported some streaks of light by the aircraft."

Preparations were been made for an emergency landing at Nairobi, Kenya, but after an hour in the air it was determined there was little damage to the plane and no injuries to passengers. It continued on to Tel Aviv.

The flight was a regular weekly charter run between Israel and the tourist resort. Passengers on the earlier inbound leg were among those caught in the hotel blast.

The Israeli national airline El Al cancelled all incoming international flights until further notice following the missile attack, Israeli radio reported.

Israeli officials were quick to point the finger of suspicion for both attacks at the al Qaeda network blamed by Washington for the September 11 attacks last year on the United States.

Israeli Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Israeli Army Radio: "To my regret there are two dead, two children."

Netanyahu said the apparent missile attack "is a very dangerous escalation of terror."

"It means that terror organizations and the regimes behind them are able to arm themselves with weapons which can cause mass casualties anywhere and everywhere.

"Today, they're firing the missiles at Israeli planes, tomorrow they'll fire missiles at American planes, British planes, every country's aircraft. Therefore, there can be no compromise with terror."

Kenya's ambassador to Israel said there was "no doubt" al Qaeda was behind the attacks.

"There is no doubt in my mind that al Qaeda is behind this attack, because we have no domestic problems, no terrorism in our country, and we have no problem with our neighbours, no problem whatsoever," said Kenyan Ambassador John Sawe.

"So I have no doubt whatsoever that these people were connected to al Qaeda," he said at the embassy in Tel Aviv.

There was no claim of responsibility for the two attacks, reported within minutes of each other.

"This [today] looks like another orchestrated attack. Indications are it is another wake-up call from hell by al-Qaeda," said a senior Israeli diplomatic source.

The United States blamed Islamic militant Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network for two 1998 truck bomb attacks on US embassies in the Kenyan capital Nairobi and the Tanzanian capital of Dar es Salaam in which 224 people were killed and thousands injured.

It launched retaliatory missile attacks on al Qaeda bases soon after those bombings. Al Qaeda was blamed again for the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington that killed 3000 and ignited the US "war on terror" and its military campaign against al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

- AGENCIES