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Kenyans ask, 'Why us?'
MOMBASA, Kenya (CNN) -- Kenyans reacted with shock and dismay Thursday after terrorists launched another deadly attack from inside the east African nation against another country's citizens -- the second such attack in four years. "The question is, 'Why us and why Kenya for the second time?'" asked Farid Abdulkadir, the Kenyan Red Cross director. "We might find the answer tomorrow, the day after or maybe never." Terrorists launched two simultaneous attacks Thursday targeting Israelis. In one attack, suicide bombers exploded a car in front of a hotel owned by an Israeli company, killing 13 people and the three bombers. In the other attack, two missiles were fired from launchers near the Mombasa airport at an Israeli charter jet, but missed their target. Authorities found the missile launchers about 300 yards from the airport. The car bombing gutted the Paradise Hotel in a scene eerily reminiscent of the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in the capital of Nairobi, which killed 213 people, mostly Kenyans. Eleven other people were killed that same day in a near simultaneous bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Nancy Kirui, the Kenyan High Commissioner to Britain, told CNN that the nation still hasn't "totally recovered" from the 1998 bombing, and now this. "Why Kenya? I don't know," Kirui said. "We are horrified and saddened that yet again we experience attacks from terrorists. At this moment, our hearts go out to those lost lives and (the) injured." She said the country implemented new security measures after the 1998 attack, deporting a large number of suspicious individuals, tightening borders and other safeguards. She said Israeli authorities were assisting in the investigation, and that U.S. investigators have been in the country for several months "to step up security in the region." "We welcome all the assistance," Kirui said. "In the times we live in now, I think it is important that the international community collaborates and acts together to try and stem this tide." She noted Kenya has "long porous borders" and that "perhaps could allow elements into the country." "We are in a region that is volatile, we have neighbor countries at war, we have large numbers of refugees," Kirui said. John Malan Sawe, the Kenyan ambassador to Israel, put the blame for Thursday's attack squarely on Osama bin Laden's terrorist network, which was behind the 1998 embassy bombings. "I do believe the people who have been responsible for terrorism all over the world must be the same people who have done it," said Sawe. "I believe it must be connected to al Qaeda." Other Kenyan authorities have said it is too early to tell who is responsible for the attacks.
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