IN AIR/ISRAEL/JERUSALEM: ISRAELI AIRLINER ATTACKED BY MISSILES WHILE LEAVING MOMBASSA AIRPORT

Record ID: 645608

  • Title: IN AIR/ISRAEL/JERUSALEM: ISRAELI AIRLINER ATTACKED BY MISSILES WHILE LEAVING MOMBASSA AIRPORT
  • Date: 28th November 2002
  • Summary: (W5) BEN-GURION AIRPORT, ISRAEL (NOVEMBER 28, 2002) (REUTERS) REAR VIEW: ARKIA PILOT RAFI MARIK AT A NEWS CONFERENCE SV: (SOUNDBITE) (English) ARKIA PILOT RAFI MARIK SAYING: "We saw two white stripes coming up from behind the airplane, on the left side, and a bit above us, passing us from behind to the front of the airplane and disappearing after a few seconds."
  • Embargoed: 13th December 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: IN AIR / SDEROT, BEN-GURION AIRPORT AND RAMAT GAN, ISRAEL / JERUSALEM
  • City:
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Crime,General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVABTP4NISED1BREE8SU64YZKAF4
  • Story Text: Three suicide car bombers have killed at least fourteen people at a Kenyan hotel used by Israelis, and missiles were fired at an Israeli airliner nearby in attacks both countries blamed on the al Qaeda network.
    The Israeli airliner that was the target of a failed missile attack while taking off from the Kenyan city of Mombasa landed safely in Tel Aviv on Thursday (November 28).
    The Boeing 757, belonging to the private Israeli company Arkia, touched down at Ben-Gurion Airport at 1040 GMT, some six hours after unknown assailants fired two missiles at it on takeoff from Mombasa airport and missed.
    An Arkia spokeswoman said all 261 passengers aboard the flight, most of them Israeli tourists, were safe.
    "While taking off on the runway, we heard a boom, I saw, I was just behind the left wing, and I saw a flash light of something, and after that one hour before landing the crew told us that there were two missiles that went, somebody sent a missile towards our plane," said passenger Mr. Atias.
    An Israeli pilot said two missiles aimed at his airliner came close enough for the crew and passengers to see their smoke trails.
    Rafi Marik, a captain with private Israeli airline company Arkia, said after landing in Tel Aviv that the airliner had reached an altitude of 500 feet (130 metres) when the missiles closed in.
    "We saw two white stripes coming up from behind the airplane, on the left side, and a bit above us, passing us from behind to the front of the airplane and disappearing after a few seconds," Marik said.
    The attack coincided with the suicide car bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel near Mombasa, Kenya's main port, which killed at least 14 people, Kenyan police said. The Israeli government said three of the dead were Israelis.
    In Mombasa, witnesses spoke of bloodied survivors staggering to the beach from the shattered Mombasa Paradise resort hotel and screaming for water. Most of the guests at the hotel were believed to be Israelis.
    Police said the attackers rammed their car into the hotel reception, killing themselves, six Kenyans and three Israelis.
    Eighty people were wounded, according to Kenya's ambassador to Israel.
    Israel's Foreign Ministry said three Israelis were killed, two of them children.
    Israeli and Kenyan officials were quick to blame the attacks on the al Qaeda network, blamed by Washington of mounting the September 11 attacks last year on the United States and for the bloody 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
    If so, it would be the first direct attack on Israelis by Islamic militant Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.
    "There is no doubt in my mind that al-Qaeda is behind this attack because we have no problem in our country, we have no domestic problems, no terrorists in our country, and we don't have any problem with our neighbouring countries, our neighbours, we have no problem what so ever, so I have no doubt what so ever that this must be connected with al-Qaeda,"
    Kenya's ambassador to Israel, John Sawe, said.
    In Jerusalem, staff at the Israeli foreign ministry situation room were struggling to gather information from Kenya. Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu monitored the situation at his office.
    "As long as this network is around it is just a question of time before they get such weapons, it is just a question of time before they will down a civilian aircraft, and may I say it always begins with Israel it neverwith Israel. So this is not just our battle, it is a common battle against a global terror network," Netanyahu said at a news conference in Jerusalem.
    A group calling itself the Army of Palestine said it carried out the attacks to mark the anniversary of the 1947 United Nations resolution partitioning Palestine between Arabs and Jews.
    In a statement faxed to Reuters, the previously unheard-of group said it had sent two groups of attackers to Kenya to "make the world hear once again the voice of Palestinian refugees, and to cast light on Zionist terrorism in the West Bank and Gaza."
    It said the attacks were intended to mark the 55th anniversary of "the ill-fated (U.N.) resolution to partition Palestine tomorrow, November 29, 2002" and followed "the accusation of terrorism against courageous resistance movements in occupied Palestine and Lebanon."
    It was not immediately possible to verify the claim.
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