|
||||||||
  |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Kenya asks UK about embassy threat
NAIROBI, Kenya -- Full details of the threat that prompted Britain to close its Nairobi embassy have been requested by Kenyan authorities. Britain closed the embassy on Wednesday after receiving a "specific threat," the UK Home Office said, and the U.S. shut some of its offices. The closures came six days after a double attack on Israeli targets in Mombasa killed 16 people. "[Britain] shared the information with us, to the extent that they planned to close the embassy," Richard Owade, director for political affairs at Kenya's foreign ministry, told Reuters. "They did not give us specific details of the security threat, but our security agencies have asked for complete details so they can investigate the matter," he added. Britain would review the situation on Monday, Owade said. The main U.S. embassy, about 10 kilometres southeast of Nairobi, kept its heavy guard but was open for business. The U.S. embassy said it had shut its information and foreign agricultural services offices located in the centre of the capital. It said it did this routinely when perceptions of a threat were heightened but the embassy itself had received no direct threat. On November 28 a suicide bombing at an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa killed 16 people, while about the same time missiles were fired at, but missed, an Israeli airliner taking off from the city. Kenyan police are holding 13 men for questioning, including a car dealer who told police he had sold the four-wheel-drive Pajero used in the suicide attack to two men of Arab origin. U.S. President George W. Bush has said he believed al Qaeda was involved in last week's attacks. (Full story) "I believe that al Qaeda was involved in the African bombings in Kenya," Bush said on Wednesday. "I believe al Qaeda hates freedom. I believe al Qaeda will strike anywhere they can in order to disrupt a civil society, and that's why we're on the hunt." Al Qaeda terrorists bombed the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi in 1998, killing 214 people. (History of terror) Bush said the U.S. and its allies were "slowly but surely" dismantling al Qaeda and he promised to "bring them to justice."
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
