Three suicide car bombers killed at least eight people yesterday at a Kenyan hotel used by Israelis, and missiles were fired at an Israeli airliner nearby in attacks both countries blamed on the al-Qaeda network.
"I can see eight bodies in the lobby. Most appear to be adult men," a witness said outside the wreckage of the Mombasa Paradise hotel.
Police said a total of 11 were confirmed killed, including three bombers, six Kenyans and two Israelis.
Witnesses spoke of survivors staggering from the resort hotel to the nearby beach and screaming for water.
"Around 7:30, we heard a massive explosion. The entire building shook. From what I can gather, a car crashed through the gates of the hotel and into the lobby. Bombs were then thrown from the car," witness Kelly Hartog wrote on the Web site of The Jerusalem Post newspaper.
Eighty people were wounded in the hotel blast, Kenya's ambassador to Israel said. There was no claim of responsibility. Most of the tourists at the hotel were believed to be Israelis.
Israeli Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Israeli Army Radio: "To my regret there are two dead, two children." Israeli television separately reported that there were three Israeli dead, two of them children.
Within minutes of the hotel blast, missiles were fired at an Israeli Arkia airliner carrying 261 passengers as it took off from Mombasa's airport.
"About 2km from the airport, two missiles were fired at the aircraft from a white Pajero by some people who are suspected to be of Arab origin. Both missiles missed the aircraft," police spokesman Kimgori Mwangi said.
The hotel attackers were also described as of Arab appearance and also driving a white four-wheeled drive Pajero they had turned into a suicide bomb.
"Just after a group of tourists were brought to the hotel, I saw a white Pajero forcing its way into the gate," said a barman at a hotel across the road from the Mombasa Paradise, adding the attack happened at about 8.30am.
"It had three people of Arab origin and after it got to the reception area I heard an explosion and the whole hotel was on fire."
Israeli and Kenyan officials were quick to blame yesterday's attacks on the al-Qaeda network, accused by Washington of mounting the Sept. 11 attacks last year on the US and for the bloody 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
"There is no doubt in my mind that al-Qaeda is behind this attack, because we have no domestic problems, no terrorism in our country, and we have no problem with our neighbors, no problem whatsoever," said Kenyan ambassador to Israel John Sawe.
The car bomb blasted the Paradise Hotel outside Mombasa, used by Israelis and other foreign tourists. "There's smoke and there's fire," a Mombasa resident said from outside the hotel as ambulances sped away.
In other news several gunmen opened fire not far from a polling station in Israel's Likud party leadership primary yesterday, killing at least two people, police said.
A witness told Army Radio there were at least five people dead at the scene in the northern Israeli town of Beit Shean, in the Jordan River valley.
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