Attacks on Israelis in Kenya Kill 11

'In simultaneous attacks on Israeli tourists in Kenya, a car bomb exploded at an Israeli-owned hotel on Thursday, killing 11 people, and at least two missiles were fired at ó but missed ó an Israeli airliner.'

more....

It seems that al-Qaeda are still active and are attacking Israelis instead of the U.S. Hmm the U.S is concentrating on Iraq, could it be that the US has given up on seeking out al-Qaeda cells because it would be difficult for them to destroy the group.

As you say today we see at least 15 people die in a suicide bombing at an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombassa, as missiles just miss an Israeli jet leaving the city's airport.
The missiles narrowly missed the Arkia airline plane - a Boeing 757 carrying 261 passengers - but a large part of the Paradise Hotel was reduced to rubble and the rest is a smoldering shell.
Kenyan police said three suicide bombers were killed, along with nine Kenyans and three Israelis, two of whom were children.
About 80 people, most of them Kenyans, were injured in the attack and many are being treated for burns.
Mombassa police have detained two people - said to be of Middle East origin - who were in the area of the hotel bombing.

The US Government condemned the attacks, but said it was too early to blame al-Qaeda. Err "too early to blame al-Qaeda" what's wrong with the U.S, I would have thought that they would jump at the opportunity to blame Bin laden and start attacks on country's that are found to be helping these terrorists.
"The United States Government deplores this violence," said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe. "We stand prepared to offer the governments of Kenya and Israel any assistance necessary in this investigation."
If confirmed as the work of al-Qaeda, it would be their first direct attack on Israelis - despite Bin Laden's hostility towards Israel.

The #s going to hit the fan soon, buit who for the middle East or the West.

It seems that the passengers on the plane were lucky. The hand-held missiles used ( Soviet SA-7 Strela ) somehow missed a lumbering passenger plane under perfect engagement conditions. No doubt if it had been a US made Stinger, it wouldn't have missed ( especially 2 of them ).

The Mossad must be going berserk at the moment.

MS..i guess they did not read the instructions!

Thank God


[Edited on 29-11-2002 by Boomslang]

Could this be an Al-Qeada move to draw Israel into a wider conflict ?

Here is a link to the SA-7

The majority of casualties, of course, were not Israelis -perhaps Al Qaida has declared war upon Swahili-speakers: the data would point that way.
And - when we are still uncertain, after almost 15 months, who perpetrated 9-11, isn't it astounding that within a few hours Netanyahu can suggest the most likely culprits here?
The white 4WD disappeared - with "Arab-looking men" inside it and it was a SAM-7, even though they haven't yet established if the jet was hit by shrapnel -which means the "missile(s)" exploded and they have no "bits' - or aren't saying.
It's obvious -it was UbL.

And how could they have mised? Don't let the vintage of the SAM-7 Strela: check out Vietnam, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Bosnia -one brought a Mirage 2000 down.
And never forget that Zvezda (Sov. makers) had joint ventures with Boeing, or that the CIA supplied captured or bought SAM's to freedom fighters.
This is the same SAM that Israel raised blue murder over -trying to prevent its sale to Syria.
Old -yes. Effective -double yes.
That anyone, with a real missile and meaning business, could have missed a target that big, that slow, at that range and altitude, almost beggars belief.

They clearly were a SAM-7's. They showed the blue painted tubes on the news, 1km from the airport where they were fired. As far as sharpnel, as far as I know they didn't detonate, as no passengers heard an explosion.
The attack on the irline was clearly directed at the Israeli's ( as there were only Israeli holiday makers on board ). As the past embassy bombings show Al-Qaedi has a terrorist network in place in Kenya.

This is much more likely to be a move to confirm to beleaguered US tax-payers that further large, never-to-be repaid, loans and subsidies to Israel are a jolly good thing.
Expect Kenyan Embassy bombing re-hashes soon.

And like Bali, it's not a bad way of putting the squeeze on benighted, strategically useful, large Muslim- population, 3-rd world countries whose only potentially growing market for hard money is tourism.

Furthermore, if we haven't all already forgotten about the British UN worker butchered in Jenin because his cell-phone resembled a hand grenade/pistol/fully-operational AEGIS system, this will help ensure we do.

Quote M-S
Could this be an Al-Qeada move to draw Israel into a wider conflict ?

Or could it be an Israeli move to draw the Palestinians into a wider conflict?

I doubt we'll ever find out.

The Israeli's are definately devious enough to dp something like that. When action is in their national interesta watch out. Ask the crew of the USS LIBERTY.

M-S,I think that Liberty link deserves it's own topic unless there has already been one.

There have been several J-B; but somehow they get lost.

You have a point when you say "Or could it be an Israeli move to draw the Palestinians into a wider conflict?"

First reports on the Mombassa bombing stated that it was a direct attack on the Israelis in Mombassa. I even read in one news report that the Israelis claimed that some Palestinian groups had laid claims to the attack. But the truth is that the Israeli government had warned its citizens not to travel to Kenya.
Although it does seem to indicate an attack on the west, as Mombassa is a popular destination for Britons and Europeans.

Incompetence was the key factor that prevented hundreds of deaths when terrorists fired shoulder-launched rockets at an Israeli airliner on Thursday, a defence expert has told New Scientist.

...Jim O'Halloran, editor of the defence industry publication Jane's Land Based Air Defence says the launchers used were Russian-made Strela-2 rocket launchers, based on photographs of two recovered systems. The Strela-2 was introduced in 1972, but it is based on 1950s technology.

He says the system is cruder and less reliable than more modern heat-seeking rocket systems such as the US-made Stinger and the Russian Igla. But the failure of the attack is more likely to be the result of incompetence than a technical malfunction, he says.

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