POLITICS: Kenya Tightens Security as Palestinian Group Admits Bombing Jews

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Katy Salmon

KIKAMBALA, Kenya, Nov 29 2002 (IPS) - As dawn broke Friday, timbers were still burning at the Paradise Hotel, more than 24 hours after it exploded. At least 15 people were killed in a suicide bomb attack on the Israeli-owned hotel on the Kenyan coast on Thursday.

Bomb experts, police and navy officials cordoned off the area to examine the smouldering remains. The Paradise Hotel is in Kikambala, 30 kilometres from the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa.

Eyewitness reports say three young men in a four wheel drive rammed their way through a barrier at the entrance to the hotel at 8.35 am.

‘’They came to the gate. The security didn’t let them go in. They reversed and came with full speed at the gate. They broke the barrier and then they went in up to the reception,” recalled hotel director, Sulami Yahouda, sitting in his wheelchair overlooking the burning rubble.

The vehicle exploded, killing the three suicide bombers instantly.

‘’Children looking for their parents, parents looking for their children. All over blood and people screaming. All the hotel is on fire. People running all around trying to run away from this hell,” Yahouda continues.

There were more than 150 guests in the hotel when the bomb went off.

When the bomb went off, a group of Israeli tourists were just checking in at the hotel. The majority of those who died were Kenyan traditional dancers, at the reception to welcome their guests. Eyewitnesses saw their bodies lying in the hotel lobby.

Yahouda says two Israeli children, a brother and sister, aged eight and 10, were killed as well as a 60-year old Israeli man. He says 10 Kenyans were also killed.

Another 18 Israeli and a number of Kenyan casualties were taken to Mombasa Hospital for treatment.

Hotel security guards described the suspects as Arabic looking.

Five minutes earlier, in an apparently co-ordinated attack, two missiles were fired at an Israeli Arkia airliner leaving Mombasa International Airport. The pilot is reported to have seen flashes of light passing close to the left-hand side of the plane.

The missiles missed their target and the plane, with 261 passengers on board, continued safely on its journey to Tel Aviv in Israel.

In a statement, Kenyan police said they believe the attacks were aimed at Israeli interests. The Paradise Hotel is owned by an Israeli and frequented by Israeli tourists. The hotel signs are even written in Hebrew.

However, Yahouda tried to paint the hotel as a more international destination.

‘’This hotel is not for Israelis. It’s for people from all around the world. It is true this week we have only Israelis, but usually there’s not only Israelis,” he said.

A group calling itself ‘The Army of Palestine’ has claimed responsibility for the attacks. A statement from the group issued in Beirut, Lebanon, said it wanted to highlight the cause of Palestinian refugees.

Kenyan police say they have arrested two suspects but there are no further details.

‘’We hope the investigation will get more details and really shed light as to their origin and how this thing was planned,” says Oku Kaunya, in-charge of the district.

Kenyan Vice-President Musalia Mudavadi and several other senior ministers and police officials visited the scene Thursday afternoon.

Kenyans have been deeply shaken by the terrorist attack – the second in four years.

In 1998, more than 200 people were killed by a terrorist attack on the American Embassy in Nairobi. That attack is believed to have been carried out by Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda group, blamed for the Sep 11 attacks on the United States.

The Israeli Embassy in Nairobi was cordoned off Thursday and all international flights of El Al, the Israeli national carrier, were grounded worldwide.

The blowing up of Paradise Hotel is also bad news for Kenya’s coastal tourism industry, which is just heading into the peak season.