2002 Mombasa attacks: Difference between revisions

2002 Mombasa attacks
Arkia had two Boeing 757 at the time of the attack
Location	Mombasa, Kenya
Date	November 28, 2002
Target	Israelis; hotel and plane
Attack type	car bomb, surface-to-air missile
Deaths	13
Injured	80

The 2002 Mombasa attacks refer to an Israeli-owned hotel and a plane belonging to an Israeli airline in Mombasa, Kenya that were targeted on 28 November 2002. A red all-terrain vehicle crashed through a barrier outside the Paradise Hotel and blew up when it hit the lobby. Also two surface-to-air missiles were fired at an Israeli charter plane, but they missed. Mombasa, on Kenya's Indian Ocean coast, is a popular destination for foreign visitors and the hotel was frequented mainly by Israeli tourists.^[1] Paradise Hotel was the only Israeli-owned hotel in the Mombasa area.^[2]

The blast occurred just after some 60 visitors had checked into the hotel, all of them from Israel, hotel officials said. 13 were killed and 80 injured . Nine Kenyans died, most of whom were said to be traditional dancers who came to welcome the 140 guests arriving from Israel by state-chartered jet and three Israelis, two of whom were children. In an overnight operation that went on into the early hours, four Israeli military Hercules planes with teams of doctors and psychologists flew into Mombasa and evacuated injured Israeli tourists and all those who wanted to leave.^[1]

Almost simultaneously, two shoulder-launched Strela 2 (SA-7) surface-to-air missiles were fired at another chartered Boeing 757 airliner owned by Israel-based Arkia Airlines as it took off from Moi International Airport. The Arkia charter company had a regular weekly service flying tourists between Tel Aviv and Mombasa. Kenyan police discovered a missile launcher and two missile casings in the Changamwe area of Mombasa, about two kilometres (1.25 miles) from the airport.

The Israeli airline El Al uses an infrared countermeasure system - once used by the British military in Northern Ireland - that tampers with the SAM's seeker system, making it less accurate. It is not known whether such a system was used on the Arkia flight.^[3]. However Arkia had a contract with the Israeli government, and one of its two Boeing 757 planes had earlier that year flown Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to Washington, and by implication that plane was fitted with Infrared countermeasures for protection.^[4] It is not known if this plane in Kenya was the same plane that transported Ariel Sharon, but since none of the missiles hit the aircraft, it is probable that this plane as well was fitted with countermeasures that tampers with the SAM's seeker system. Reports from passengers tended to confirm the idea that some sort of antimissile defence system had been deployed. Eyewitnesses reported seeing a small explosion above one of the plane’s wings suggesting that decoy flares had been fired.^[4]

The pilots planned on an emergency landing in Nairobi after seeing the two missiles streak past them, but decided to continue to Israel. The airliner landed at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv about five hours later, escorted by Israeli F-15 fighter jets.^[5]

Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, leader of the London-based Islamic organisation Al Muhajiroun, said that warnings had appeared on the Internet. “Militant groups who sympathise with Al Qaeda warned one week ago that there would be an attack on Kenya and they mentioned Israelis,” he said.

The Australian government issued a warning of a “possible risk of terrorist attacks against sites in Kenya, particularly in Nairobi and Mombassa” two weeks prior to the bombing. It advised Australian tourists to defer all nonessential travel to Mombassa and those who were already there were told that they should leave. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the information came from British intelligence sources and was said to have been passed on to other governments, including Israel, as a matter of course. Germany, which also received the warning, took it seriously enough to warn its citizens.

Initially, Israeli government spokesmen denied that such a warning had been received. But four days after the blast, Brigadier-General Yossi Kuperwasser admitted that the Israeli military intelligence were aware of a threat in Kenya. He sought to downplay the significance of the information, claiming that it was not specific enough. Danny Yatom, former Mossad head, took a similar line, claiming that Israel got so many terror warnings they were not taken seriously.^[5]

Since the targets were Israeli owned and contained Israelis, it is fair to assume that this attack was part of the ongoing conflict that various parties have with Israel. Israel, however, was anxious to tie the event together with the wider conflict, the so called "War on terror", that The United States was engaged in, and quickly blamed Al-Queda. This would be giving it a freer hand in its dealings with militants in its own area, as it could claim it was part of a wider conflict. Israel had some success in getting this message across. According to the New York Times, unnamed United States intelligence officials immediately announced that a Somali group linked to al-Qaeda may have been responsible for the car bomb and the missiles fired at the airliner, speculating that the suspects could have smuggled the missiles into Kenya from Somalia.^{[citation needed]} Twelve people were questioned in connection with the Paradise Hotel bombing: six Pakistanis, four Somalis (most already in custody for border violations), an American, and the American's Spanish backpacking companion.

In Lebanon, a previously unknown group called the Army of Palestine has said it carried out the attacks and said it wanted the world to hear the "voice of the refugees" on the 55th anniversary of the partition of Palestine. The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine of 29 November 1947 called for the division of Palestine, as it was then called, into Jewish and Arab states. The Palestinians and other Arabs did not accept the partition.^[1][6]

Washington condemned the attacks: "Today's attacks underscore the continuing willingness of those opposed to peace to commit horrible crimes," President George W Bush said "The United States remains firmly committed, with its partners around the world, to the fight against terror and those who commit these heinous acts." Mr Bush urged all "those who seek peace... to dismantle the infrastructure of terror".^[1]

On June 22, 2006, the United States Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Jendayi Frazer, told the Somaliland Times that the US was asking for the assistance of the Islamic Courts Union in apprehending suspects in attacks on East African embassies in 1998 and the Paradise Hotel in Kenya in 2002.^[7] She listed the following individuals by name and nationality:

• Fazul Abdullah Mohamed, Comoros
• Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, Kenya
• Abu Taha al-Sudan, Sudan

On December 20, 2006, Salad Ali Jelle, Defence Minister of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government, claimed that one of Washington's suspects, Abu Taha al-Sudan, was an Islamic Courts Union leader fighting against the Transitional Federal Government in the 2006 Battle of Baidoa.^[8]

Since the failed airliner attacks efforts to counter proliferation of shoulder-fired missile (MANPADS) through the elimination of excess or illicit stocks became a priority of the U.S. Government—a priority that has been reinforced by the 2003 FBI sting operation in Newark and attacks on aircraft in Iraq.^[9]

•  United States - Secretary of State Colin Powell said November 28 "We condemn in the strongest terms the horrific terrorist bombing earlier today in the Paradise Hotel near Mombasa Kenya that killed at least eleven and wounded dozens -- both Kenyans and Israelis. We also condemn in the strongest terms the terrorist shooting at a polling station in Beit Shean in which three Israelis were killed and many more injured."

•  United Kingdom - UK Home Secretary Jack Straw expressed his "utter condemnation" of a suicide bomb attack on an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya.

•  Israel - Israel's Foreign Minister Benyamin Netanyahu called the attacks a "grave escalation of terror against Israel".

• Flight Guard

• After Blast, Kenya Reviews Qaeda's Trail in East Africa, The New York Times, December 1, 2002
• ATTACKS IN MOMBASA: Kenyans Hunting for Clues; Bombing Toll Rises to 13, The New York Times, November 30, 2002
• THE GRIEVERS: Israelis Return in Trauma From Supposed Haven, The New York Times, November 30, 2002
• INVESTIGATION: U.S. Suspects Qaeda Link to Bombing in Mombasa, The New York Times, November 30, 2002
• Source of Bombs? Kenyans Look North, The New York Times, November 30, 2002
• AT THE SITE: Survivor Saw Bombers' Race to Death, The New York Times, November 30, 2002
• US Seeks Islamic Courts’ Help To Catch Somali Extremists, Somaliland Times, June 22, 2006