Kenyan Guard Describes Blast Suspect to FBI

A security guard who came face to face with one of the American Embassy bombers here picked out a photograph of a man who may have been one of the attackers and provided a description so detailed that FBI investigators were able to draw a composite sketch.

“I said the man looked like him,” said Benson Okuku Bwaku. But Bwaku said he stopped short of positively identifying the man in the picture as the one he confronted seconds before a massive truck bomb exploded behind the embassy, killing more than 250 people.

In an investigation that is still in its early stages, Bwaku is apparently the closest surviving witness to any of the attackers.

Bwaku, 33, was on guard last Friday when a pickup truck attempted to enter the embassy compound but was blocked by another car. A passenger jumped from the truck and demanded that Bwaku open the gate. Bwaku said that he refused and that the man threw a grenade past him. The main blast that damaged the embassy and nearby buildings came moments later.