Bomb suspects 'had US passports'

Two of 12 suspects being held in connection with the terrorist attack which killed 15 at a Kenyan hotel were using US passports, it was claimed today.

The manager of a hotel where the man and woman were staying when the suicide bombers devastated the Mombasa Paradise today revealed the pair were from Florida. Ben Wafula, general manager of Le Soleil Beach Club, said: "They had American passports and they said they were from Florida."

It came as the bodies of the Israeli victims were flown home today. The dead were identified as brothers Noy and Dvir Anter, aged 12 and 14, from the West Bank settlement of Ariel, and Albert Dehaville, a 60-year-old tour guide from Raanana.

Mr Wafula said the suspects were a mixed-race man and a white woman, both in their early twenties. They arrived on Monday and were trying to check out yesterday morning, two hours after the bombing of the Paradise Hotel, about three miles away. Staff alerted police.

US embassy spokesman Peter Claussen, when asked about the US passport holders, said it had "indications from its own information that this may be correct".

The latest development increases suspicion that the attack on the Paradise Hotel and the simultaneous firing of two missiles at an Israeli jet leaving Mombasa airport was the work of al Qaeda.

The flight school used by a number of the 11 September hijackers was in Florida. But if the pair are linked to the attack it will also embarrass the US authorities that they were able to travel freely. Police commissioner Philemon Abong'o said: "I feel they could give us useful information."

US and Israeli agents have joined the search for the terror gang and are searching the wreckage of the hotel for clues.

All 235 Israeli survivors of the attack were flown home as their government vowed to catch the terrorists. Arriving at Lod airforce base, near Tel Aviv, some spoke of their terror and questioned whether they would ever be able to feel safe anywhere. Many cried with relief as they fell into the arms of loved ones.

The Israeli army sent a team of 150 doctors, psychologists and soldiers to Mombasa after the attack on the hotel which killed nine Kenyans, three Israelis and the three suicide bombers. It was timed to coincide with the arrival of a large party of guests. Traditional dancers greeting them bore the full brunt of the explosion after a jeep packed with explosives crashed through the gates.

Meanwhile, Osama bin Laden's brother today confirmed that the voice on a tape released three weeks ago was that of the world's most wanted terrorist. Yeslam bin Laden, 52, said he recognised the voice on the tape as well as on others that have surfaced in the last few months. In the latest tape Bin Laden warned Britain, Australia, France, Italy, Canada and Germany not to join a US-led war in Iraq or they would face the kind of "scattered attacks that have taken place recently".

Downing Street, while refusing to confirm details publicly, signalled its awareness of terror warnings received in Australia. But Tony Blair's spokesman reaffirmed his warning of the need to balance alerting the public to often vague intelligence with a reluctance to spread alarm. The spokesman repeated that the Government would disclose any specific threat.

NEWS FLASH: Six Israelis killed, 40 injured - 7 seriously, one critically - in Palestinian shooting-grenade rampage at Beit Shean central bus station, post office and crowded Likud voting booth, Thursday afternoon. Soldiers shoot two dead. Suspected booby-trapped car found nearby. Among wounded are three sons of veteran Israeli politician David Levy. 4 of 6 victims are: Haim Amar, 56, David Peretz, 48, Mordechai Avraham, 44 and Yaacov Lary, 35 – all from this northern town

LEFT The scene of the attack in Beit Shean which left 6 dead RIGHT Near a campaign poster reading 'The people want Sharon', background, an Israeli bomb squad robot lifts the body of one of two Palestinian terrorists as it checks for explosives near the Likud Party headquarter in Beit Shean, nothern Israel, Thursday Nov. 28, 2002. Two Palestinians opened fire Tuesday on a Likud Party office crowded with Israelis casting ballots in a party primary, killing six people and wounding dozens more in the crowd and at a nearby open-air bus station before being shot dead. (AP Photo/Yigal Levy)

TWO TERROR ATTACKS IN KENYA TARGET ISRAELIS
In simultaneous attacks on Israeli tourists in Kenya, an explosion rocked an Israeli-owned hotel on Thursday, killing at least 11 people, including three suicide bombers, and 80 people were wounded. At the same time, at least two missiles were fired at, but missed, an Israeli airliner that had just departed the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa. Israel suspects Al Qaida is behind the attacks. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has called emergency defense consultations, which are expected to convene this afternoon in Tel Aviv to weigh Israel's response. IDF medical personnel are being flown to the site.
THREE ISRAELIS KILLED IN KENYA ATTACK

NOY ANTER 12 DIVIR ANTER 13 ALBERT DEVILEY, 60

LEFT A YOUNG ISRAELI GIRIL INJURED IN TERROR ATTACK IS ATTENDED TO IN HOSPITAL IN KENYA.
RIGHT Israeli tourist Michael da Dash, 50, is comforted by her husband Isaac Da Dash after she received head wounds during the bomb attack on the Paradise Hotel, Thursday Nov. 28 , 2002

SCENES FROM THE AIRPORT WHERE PASSENGERS SURVIVE TERROR ATTACK
ON ARKIA FLIGHT FROM KENYA TO TEL AVIV

Sgt. Maj (Res) Shai Garmai, 30, from Lod, is Israeli soldier killed early Friday at Tel Katifa in Gaza Strip

Left-Sergeant Major Shai Garmai, 30, was killed by a Hamas sniper Friday in the Gaza Strip
Right- A brother of Shai Barmai in tears at the funeral

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