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| East/Subsaharan Africa |
| Flights grounded and al-Qaeda hunt is on |
| 2003-05-16 |
| EFL Kenyan police have launched a nationwide search for an indicted al-Qaeda fighter after warnings the group may be planning to shoot down an airliner in east Africa. All British commercial flights to and from Kenya have been suspended until further notice because of the terrorist threat. The alert was sparked by the recent reported sighting of Fazul Abdullah Mohammed in the coastal Kenyan city of Mombasa. Crawled out of his hole Mohammed, who allegedly trained in Afghanistan with Osama bin Laden, is wanted by the FBI on murder charges for his alleged role in the 1998 bomb attacks on US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam that killed 231 people. He is also suspected of involvement in the November 28 bombing of the Paradise Hotel in Mombasa, a popular Israeli holiday resort in which 11 Kenyans and three Israelis died. Within minutes of that attack, terrorists narrowly failed to shoot down an Israeli airliner with shoulder-to-air missiles as it took off from Mombasa airport. If at first you don't succeed, etc. Since then, more than 500 Kenyan security officials have undergone specialised training in the United States. Let's see what they learned Now Kenyan officials say they believe Mohammed is in the country and planning another attack. "He is at large," said Douglas Kaunda, spokesman for the National Ministry of Security. "After this week's attacks in Saudi Arabia, we don't want to take any chances. All of this is hurting Kenya too much. We want it to end." So do we Intelligence officials have interpreted the recent surge in terrorist activity as efforts by al-Qaeda-affiliated groups to prove their network is still viable, despite 19 months of US counter-terrorism operations. Just like any NGO, if you don't keep your name in the papers, your funding dries up. Some plans detected by US and foreign intelligence agencies appear to have been in the works for months, but are being brought to fruition quickly, they said. "They would like to do them all at the same time and have the whole world go up," explained one US terrorism official. "This is a very bad patch." US counter-terrorism experts are especially worried about attacks in Kenya and other parts of East Africa. Borders are not secure and officials are open to bribes Officials describe the volume of intelligence reports on potential threats there, including communications intercepts and tips from informants, as similar to the amount of information collected in Saudi Arabia before this week's suicide bomb attacks. "In some cases the bullets have already left the gun," said another intelligence official. |
| Posted by:Steve |