U.S. Evacuating Embassy Staff in Albania

A week after the devastating double bombings in East Africa, a jittery State Department on Friday ordered a partial evacuation of the diplomatic staff at its embassy in Albania and warned private citizens there to leave because of the dangers of terrorism.

The State Department said the decision to suspend all operations at the embassy was attributable to recent threats by Islamic extremists against the United States and its citizens. A statement warned of “the possibility that the U.S. Embassy in Tirana . . . could be among the targets of a terrorist attack.”

Last month, Albania extradited four alleged Islamic extremists to Egypt after an operation that the Albanian press said was orchestrated by the CIA. The four are allegedly members of an Egyptian movement aligned with Osama bin Laden, a wealthy Saudi dissident whose extensive network from Algeria to the Philippines is being probed for possible ties to the Kenya and Tanzania bombings.

The State Department discouraged all travel to Albania and advised Americans there to consider leaving.

In Tanzania, the building housing the U.S. Agency for International Development office was evacuated Friday, although the problem turned out to be technical. After a search, employees were allowed to return.

U.S. and African investigators continued to look into an array of leads, including an attempt by six Iraqis to charter a plane out of Tanzania shortly after the Aug. 7 bombings. When questioned by authorities, the six men were unable to explain how they had entered the country, according to ranking African diplomats.

The Iraqis are among 14 men, including several Sudanese, an Australian and a Turk, who were picked up in Tanzania in the aftermath of the nearly simultaneous attacks in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Circumstances surrounding the detentions suggest an aggressive effort by authorities to round up any questionable characters, based in some cases on no more than the absence of identity papers.

In Nairobi, Kenyan authorities have detained possibly more than five people in the bombing there.

On Friday, a veil of secrecy continued to surround the status of the 12 people being detained in Dar es Salaam in connection with the bombing there. U.S. authorities and Tanzanian police refused to comment on the detainees, who consist of six Iraqis and six Sudanese.

A senior diplomat at the Sudanese Embassy said the Tanzanian authorities have not even responded to requests for the names of the Sudanese detainees. “At this point, we don’t even know who they are,” the diplomat said.

Mohammed Hassan Qassim, an Australian citizen born in Ethiopia and raised in Somalia, who was among those arrested but has since been released, said the Iraqis and Sudanese are being kept in cells at the central police station. Qassim said he and a Turkish businessman, who has reportedly also been released, were detained in a cell separate from the others.

Qassim, a doctor who works for the United Nations refugee agency, arrived in Tanzania only two weeks ago with his wife and five children from a previous posting in Somalia. He said police arrived at his hotel room Sunday, searched the room and hauled him off to jail for questioning when he could not produce his U.N. identification. Police also confiscated his diary and several of his children’s videotapes.

“They took me to the senior police officer, and I asked, ‘Why am I here?’ ” Qassim said in an interview Friday. “He told me, ‘You are suspected in the bomb blast of the U.S. Embassy.’ ”

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When Qassim, 46, explained that his U.N. documentation had been submitted to the Tanzanian Foreign Ministry, as is routine for new employees from the world body in the country, police stopped their questioning and checked out his story. Three days later, he was released.

“I couldn’t eat for three days; the toilet facilities were so horrible it encouraged me not to eat or drink so I wouldn’t have to use them,” Qassim said. “I have never seen anything like that. . . . I just want to put this out of mind and get on with business.”

Tanzanian and U.S. officials cautioned that the nationality of suspects by no means automatically linked them to a particular government or movement.

In Washington, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright announced that she will leave for Africa on Sunday to visit the bomb sites of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and to engage in discussions with both governments. In addition, she will meet with investigators and visit Kenyans, Tanzanians and other foreign nationals injured in the attacks before returning Wednesday.

Albright’s trip is designed to demonstrate Washington’s commitment to staying engaged in the world rather than retreat in the face of terrorist attacks. The secretary opted not to go to Africa immediately after the attacks to avoid interfering with the rescue effort.

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Her visit also is seen as an opportunity to respond to criticism in Africa that Americans have at times been indifferent to the human, financial and security effects of the bombings on Kenya and Tanzania. Albright’s trip “will show the world that the United States and important Americans are not afraid to come to Kenya,” U.S. Ambassador Prudence Bushnell said.

U.S. officials are emphasizing their intent to quickly rebuild embassies in the two countries.

The Kenyan government hopes that the United States will use Albright’s visit to announce more aid to deal with costly reconstruction. President Daniel Arap Moi has called for assistance from the U.S. and other members of the international community. On Friday, the government made direct appeals to foreign diplomats.

Initial estimates suggest that the damage in Nairobi alone could top $500 million. After the bombing, Kenya set up a Kenya National Disaster Fund, with a Washington account number at the Riggs National Bank. But so far, it has received only limited contributions, officials said.

Albright’s only previous trip to Africa since assuming office was in December, when she visited the Great Lakes region, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia.

Albright went to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington on Friday to visit six patients recovering from injuries in the bombings. “They are very brave. They have their families, for the most part, with them. We are trying to do everything we can to make everybody comfortable,” she said.

Times staff writer Dean E. Murphy in Nairobi contributed to this report.