Australia forewarned of Mombasa attack

Witnesses said bloodied survivors staggered to the beach for water after the Mombasa attack

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CANBERRA, Australia (CNN) -- Australian authorities say they warned of a threat in the Kenyan city of Mombasa two weeks before synchronized attacks against Israelis left 15 people dead.

Three suicide bombers blew up the Paradise Hotel in Mombasa on Thursday, killing 12 people. A short time earlier, unknown assailants fired two missiles at an Israeli charter plane carrying 271 people but missed their target. Three people are being held for questioning. (Full story)

In a statement on Friday, Canberra said it had warned Australians on November 12 to "defer all non-essential travel to Mombasa" because of the risk of terrorist attacks against Westerners in the coastal city.

Australia said this alert was based on intelligence information, but Foreign Minister Alexander Downer emphasized the country had no specific information about the timing, location or method of the possible attacks.

Canberra has kept in place travel alerts to a swathe of Southeast Asian nations -- including Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines -- following an October 12 bomb attack on the resort island of Bali, which killed at least 180 people.

About half of those killed were Australians and Canberra came under fire for not issuing strong enough warnings about the risks in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation.

Following Thursday's deadly attack in Kenya, Australia upgraded its travel advisory, warning its citizens to defer travel to the whole of the African country.

It also suggested Australians should be careful in commercial and public areas known to be frequented by foreigners, such as hotels, clubs, restaurants, bars, schools, places of worship and tourist areas.

Prime Minister John Howard said the attacks in Kenya bear many of the hallmarks of the al Qaeda network, which is blamed for the 1998 dual bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington.

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