Death Toll Mounts in Attacks Targeting Israelis in Kenya

The death toll in a suicide car bombing at a resort hotel here climbed to at least 15 people Thursday as officials said one of two missiles fired at the time of the blast came close enough to an Israeli jet taking off nearby to slightly damage the tail.

The two heat-seeking missiles passed by the jet, and the Arkia Charter Co. flight with 271 people on board was able to land safely in Tel Aviv a few hours later.

The car bombing Thursday morning tore through the Paradise hotel, which caters almost exclusively to Israeli tourists, and triggered a fire that severely damaged much of the building. At least nine Kenyans, three Israelis and the three suicide bombers were among the dead, according to police at the scene. The bodies of the Israelis were being returned to Israel today. Two of the victims were brothers, ages 12 and 13. More than 60 people were wounded, some of them seriously.

A previously unknown group calling itself the Army of Palestine claimed responsibility for the attacks in a fax to the media, but government officials in Kenya and Israel, along with terrorism experts, said the operation was well coordinated and bore the trademarks of Al Qaeda or an affiliated group.

“We don’t know yet if it’s Al Qaeda, but it looks like it,” said Jonathan Peled, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

In Crawford, Texas, President Bush condemned the attacks. “Those who seek peace must do everything in their power to dismantle the infrastructure of terror that makes such actions possible,” he said in a statement.

In an apparently separate attack, six Israelis were killed and at least 16 moderately to seriously injured Thursday in the northern Israeli town of Beit Shean when two Palestinian gunmen fired indiscriminately into crowds near the local bus station, which is near a polling site where people were voting in the Likud Party primary.

The attack in Kenya came about 8:30 a.m., as dancers from a Mombasa coastal tribe dressed in tie-dye and grass skirts were welcoming in Swahili arriving guests at the Paradise hotel. Security guards and witnesses said a green Mitsubishi Pajero sport utility vehicle pulled up to the gate but was denied entrance.

The vehicle, carrying three men who appeared to be Arabs, reversed several yards, rammed the gate and sped toward the reception area. One man jumped out of the vehicle, threw what witnesses said were grenades and then blew himself up. Seconds later, the vehicle exploded.

Hotel guests and staff, covered with dust and streaked with blood, ran for the nearby beach as the hotel’s thatched roof went up in flames, sending billows of smoke into the air. The fire destroyed most of the hotel.

Police on the scene said they believed that the entire dance troupe was killed in the attack.

“People were screaming, calling for their family members, who were running for the ocean” or the bushes that surround the resort, said Zev Wegh, 54, a graphic designer with Yediot Aharonot, Israel’s largest daily newspaper, who was vacationing at the resort.

It was the second major terrorist attack in Kenya in recent years. The United States blamed Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda terrorist network for 1998 truck bomb attacks on U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in which 224 people were killed and thousands injured.

The Israeli government immediately flew a medical team to Mombasa to treat and evacuate the wounded. Israeli military Hercules transport aircraft were expected to arrive within hours to evacuate the uninjured Israelis; teams of forensic and bomb experts also were dispatched by the Israeli government.

Although Israelis regularly face suicide bombings and other attacks by Palestinians in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, they have not been a regular target of recent suspected Al Qaeda attacks. A synagogue in Tunisia was the target of an April terrorist attack for which Al Qaeda took responsibility; 21 people were killed, none of them Israelis.

However, in his most recent statement, Bin Laden deplored Israel’s military offensive against the Palestinians and particularly attacks that killed “old people, women and children.” Israel has often said it is only trying to protect itself from attacks by Palestinians.

Analysts noted that the hotel and missile attacks were well coordinated and well organized and relied on local knowledge, a trademark of Al Qaeda. Although no one was killed or injured in the missile attack, it was the first time terrorists have used such a tactic, and it points to a previously overlooked area of vulnerability, one that potentially affects tourist destinations all over the world. While many airports in capital cities have broad and tightly secured perimeters, such security measures are rare in smaller tourist destinations.

“It is hard to defend aircraft from such a strategic threat,” said Pini Schiff, deputy director general of Israel’s Airport Authority. “The state of Israel and security authorities are doing their best in and out of the country to address this issue, [but] our sovereignty in airports around the world is limited, and at times the adversary has the upper hand in his ability to use such a weapon in an open space.”

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called on the Israeli public to eschew fear and stand up to attackers. “We fight terrorism all the time and everywhere,” he said at an evening news conference. “We will fight everyone who tries and unfortunately sometimes succeeds in hurting us.”

He then struck a domestic note, urging Israelis not to be afraid to go to the polls in Thursday’s Likud Party primary, in which he later defeated Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Don’t let terrorism frighten you; don’t let terrorism influence you; go and vote,” he told the country. With the primary victory, Sharon will face Labor Party candidate Amram Mitzna in January national elections.

Sharon gave the Mossad secret service responsibility for the investigation into the Kenya attacks. “Our long arm will get those who carried out the terror attacks. No one will be forgiven,” he said.

American investigators were also on the scene. The United States has had a large FBI presence in Nairobi since the 1998 attacks.

In the Kenya hotel attack, a group of 164 Israeli tourists had just arrived from Tel Aviv for a stay over the Hanukkah holidays. They were just completing hotel check-in when the Pajero pulled up to the gate.

Many of the Israelis had brought Hanukkah candles, and a large menorah was set up in the lobby.

“They thought it would be a nice, peaceful way to spend the holidays,” said Yigal Cohen, a lawyer for the Paradise Mombasa Co. in Tel Aviv, a related travel company.

The Paradise hotel, which attracts both sunbathers and tourists who want to take safaris in nearby game reserves, is frequented almost exclusively by Israelis, who arrive on charter flights every Thursday for weeklong stays. It has tight security, not out of fear of terrorist attacks but to keep out locals, Cohen said.

Highly flammable native thatch is used for the large lobby roof as well as elsewhere in the resort.

“The entire resort is made of typically African and native materials, such as wood and straw. The paths, the roofs, the banisters -- everything is extremely flammable, and it is easy to see how the guests would have been engulfed in flames almost instantaneously,” said Aharon Domb, the director general of the Israeli Tourism Ministry.

It took only a few minutes for the hotel to be nearly destroyed.

“Some people had no choice but to jump out of their windows,” Domb said. “Luckily, the entire guest complex was only three stories high.”

Elvis Dzombo, a 24-year-old stockroom worker, was standing near the reception area when the explosion occurred.

“It was a matter of running for your life,” he said, pressing a bloody white bandage to a gash on his face. “I thank God I found my exit.” The attack did not surprise security experts, who note East Africa’s proximity to Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

Mombasa is a port city through which many foreigners pass. Security experts note that Kenya lacks the computerized immigration system and passport scanning devices used in the United States and many European countries. And although only 15% of Kenya’s population is Muslim, Mombasa also is the area with the largest and most radical Islamic population, said Jonathan Stevenson, a terrorism expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.

Other terrorism experts made similar points.

“Al Qaeda has operated in Kenya, and we know they have a good infrastructure there, we know they have good connections with local organizations in Africa that they may have been using as proxies,” said Yoram Schweitzer, an Israeli expert in global terrorism.

One witness described the hotel’s attackers as calm, even cheerful, in the moments before the explosion.

“They looked so relaxed,” said Dreesen Maye, 30, who works as a tour guide for the hotel and saw the Pajero driving slowly up to the front gates. “I saw them talking and laughing.”

The missile attack, which apparently was launched near the Mombasa airport, appeared to involve more than one person. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Peled said two heat-seeking, Russian-made missiles known as SA-7s were launched at Arkia Flight 582 a few minutes after it took off.

A missile launcher was found later on the ground near the airport.

The pilot, Rafi Marek, a 13-year veteran of Arkia, said everything was normal when the plane took off. Then, he said, “we felt a light thump on the plane, and my first association, based on my experience, is that a small bird hit the plane. But we noticed two white tails of some smoke go past us on our left ... and disintegrate within moments.”

It was not until later that Marek concluded that the plane had been targeted.

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Maharaj reported from Msumarini and Rubin from Jerusalem. Times staff writer Maura Reynolds in Crawford contributed to this report.