KENYA: CRITICALLY INJURED VICTIMS OF SUICIDE BOMB ATTACK ON HOTEL IN MOMBASA TREATED IN HOSPITAL/ ISRAEL EVACUATES ALL ITS TOURISTS/ EXPERTS SCOUR BOMB SITE FOR EVIDENCE

Record ID: 355717

  • Title: KENYA: CRITICALLY INJURED VICTIMS OF SUICIDE BOMB ATTACK ON HOTEL IN MOMBASA TREATED IN HOSPITAL/ ISRAEL EVACUATES ALL ITS TOURISTS/ EXPERTS SCOUR BOMB SITE FOR EVIDENCE
  • Date: 28th November 2002
  • Summary: (U2) MOMBASA, KENYA (NOVEMBER 28, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) (NIGHTSHOTS) 1. MV/SCU: EXTERIOR OF MOMBASA HOSPITAL (2 SHOTS) 0.08 2. CU: THE INTENSIVE CARE UNIT, SIGN 0.13 3. INSIDE THE ICU VARIOUS OF VICTIM A GIRL CALLED ADDA LYING IN HOSPITAL BED; FATHER NEXT TO BED (3 SHOTS) 0.35 4. SV: THE FATHER BREAKING DOWN INTO T
  • Embargoed: 13th December 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MOMBASA, KENYA
  • Country: Kenya
  • Reuters ID: LVA1QUTMMX37EPPL8MI1G7O3MMFX
  • Story Text: The critically ill were still being treated in hospital while
    Israel evacuated other wounded tourists from Mombasa on
    Friday as Kenyan police backed by Israeli and U.S. security
    experts hunted for those responsible for a hotel suicide
    bombing that killed 12 people.


    Kenyan officials said the Israeli dead were two brothers
    aged 13 and 15 years and a 61-year-old man. Nine Kenyans,
    including members of a traditional African dance team
    welcoming tourists, and the three suicide bombers also died.

    One man lost both of his son, whilst his wife and daughter
    lay injured in Mombasa hospital.

    "The one who lost his two sons and his wife is in a
    critical condition and his daughter is in intensive care he
    actually ran away from a town that was hit by terror in Israel
    and they came this morning and as he described he looked up to
    the sky and said we are in paradise...and then it happened,"
    said Doctor Moshe Neumann.

    A team of Israeli doctors arrived in Mombasa to help
    evacuate the 15 Israeli injured.

    Local government officials said at least 60 other people
    were injured in the hotel blast, some seriously.

    "The plan is to see all patients in this hospital and in
    the other two hospitals and to organise for sure and be set
    for evacuation and we plan to try and bring everyone to
    Israel," said Israeli doctor professor Shimuell Shapiro.

    Kenyan officials were also seeking for men of Arab
    appearance who fired missiles at, but failed to hit an Israeli
    chartered jet taking off from Mombasa airport on Thursday
    within minutes of the hotel attack.

    In Jerusalem, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed Israel
    would hunt down those behind the attacks.

    As police questioned two men detained while trying to
    check out of a Mombasa hotel, U.S. investigators attached to
    the American embassy in Nairobi helped Israeli and Kenyan
    experts search for clues at the scene of the blast.

    Israel began evacuating dozens of Israeli holidaymakers,
    including the wounded, aggravating fears among outraged
    Kenyans that their cash-strapped country faces an
    economically-damaging exodus of jittery tourists.

    "We were were on a humanitarian mission first and
    foremost, 99 percent of the rescue team was medical and we
    arrived the first team with a plane full of a team from the
    Israel foreign ministry that speak the language and five or
    six doctors from the top hospitals in Israel. Basically they
    arrived here and split up into the three hospitals to have a
    chance to see how the wounded are. The next plane arrived a
    few hours later with a huge medical team, with blood,
    equipment, psychologists to deal with her families of those
    who are hurt, they themselves weren't injured but they were
    very shaken up, that is what the psychologists are. Then later
    in the night four larger planes arrived with more medical
    equipment several teams when out to all the hospitals they
    treated Kenyans and Israel's," Israeli Foreign Ministry
    official Gilad Millo told Reuters.

    Israeli and Kenyan officials blamed the al Qaeda network
    for the missile attack and the blast at the hotel, which was
    condemned by U.S. President George W. Bush as a "horrible
    crime".

    In a fax sent to Reuters by a Lebanese media organisation,
    the previously unheard-of "Army of Palestine" claimed
    responsibility.

    The Israeli prime minister used a victory speech after his
    re-election as leader of the rightist Likud party ahead of
    Israel's January 28 general election to swear vengeance.

    Washington said it was too early to point the finger at
    the al Qaeda group it holds responsible for the September 11
    attacks on the United States last year.

    Police said the suicide bombers rammed a
    four-wheeled-drive vehicle carrying explosives into the lobby
    of the Paradise hotel.

    Sharif said there were possibly 16 dead, including the
    three bombers.
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