Fighting Terror Still Tough
Matthew Rosenberg, The Associated Press
Mombasa, Kenya -- A day after simultaneous terror attacks against Israeli targets in Kenya, the country’s police commissioner touted the arrest of about a dozen foreigners, calling it a breakthrough in the case.
Saturday, the country’s internal security and defense minister boasted that the Kenyan police would crack the case.
But on the same day, two foreigners -- an American woman and her husband -- were released and police had yet to link the others to Thursday’s attacks against an Israeli-owned airliner and resort hotel that killed 16 people, including three suicide bombers.
The investigation’s lack of significant progress so far highlights the problems still facing Kenyan police four years after a deadly truck bomb at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi revealed the nation’s porous borders and weak security and law enforcement systems.
The attacks last week that killed 10 Kenyans, three Israelis and the three unidentified bombers have again pushed Kenyan police into an investigation they may not be prepared to handle.
There has been some improvement in the East African nation’s police force in recent years, mainly because of training programs offered by the United States and Israel after the Aug. 7, 1998, embassy bombing claimed by Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network killed 219 people and injured 5,000.
But the lack of infrastructure and equipment, compounded by low morale, poor salaries and pervasive corruption, makes it hard for Kenyan police to screen for possible terrorists or investigate attacks.
The internal security minister, Julius Sunkuli, while defending the abilities of Kenyan police, was quick to add Saturday that his country does not have the advanced technical resources of the Americans and Israelis, and welcomed all assistance.
Two shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles were launched against an Israeli charter jet leaving Mombasa airport, narrowly missing the Arika Airlines Boeing 757 with 261 passengers and 10 crew members. It landed safely in Tel Aviv, Israel, with no casualties.
A few minutes after the missiles were fired, a vehicle packed with explosives broke through the gate at the ocean-side Paradise Hotel. One attacker ran into the lobby and blew himself up, while two others exploded the vehicle.
Police have found the registration plate for the vehicle used in the suicide attack, but it is unclear who its owners are. There has been no progress tracing the vehicle used in the missile attack, although Kenyan officials believe it still is in the country.
“I’m happy with the way the investigation is going,” Sunkuli said.
A few plainclothes Israeli investigators have been busy at the ruins of the Paradise Hotel, occasionally working in tandem with Kenyan police. But the words in black letters on the red tape used to cordon off the crime site are in Hebrew. U.S. security officials also were taking part.