NAIROBI, Kenya — Investigators have found evidence suggesting that some of the same al-Qaeda operatives involved in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in East Africa may have helped carry out the November attack on a Kenyan resort.
Four al-Qaeda members were convicted in 2001 for the embassy attacks. However, American officials acknowledge that they never completely cracked the al-Qaeda cell that carried out the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania that left 224 people dead. Thirteen of the FBI’s 22 most-wanted terrorists are suspects in those attacks.
Now, investigators say, at least two members of that cell may have gone on to plan the bombing of the Paradise Hotel in Mombasa on Nov. 28 that killed 11 Kenyans, three Israelis and at least two suicide bombers. A nearly simultaneous attack with a missile narrowly missed a charter plane headed to Israel from Mombasa airport.
“From the way things are unfolding, we think there’s a connection,” said one of the Kenyan investigators. “There are many suspicious links between this one and that one back in 1998.”
Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, as well as the FBI have also been involved in the Mombasa investigation. After the embassy bombings in 1998, FBI officials thought that most of those involved had fled the area, possibly seeking haven in Afghanistan, and the trail of the suspected al-Qaeda members went cold.
Then came the Mombasa attacks, for which al-Qaeda claimed responsibility. After nearly three months of investigation, Kenyan law-enforcement officials have yet to arrest any suspects. The numerous people taken in for questioning have all been released.
Investigators say they have developed a considerable body of evidence, much of it linking suspects in the embassy and hotel bombings.
Although only one suspect has been named, investigators say they have the names and photographs of three others, all of them Kenyans. A fifth suspect, who is possibly a Kenyan and who was seen frequently with the others, apparently used false names. His identity is still being established.
One of the men, a Kenyan suspected of helping to construct the bomb that destroyed the Paradise hotel, is also wanted for questioning in connection with the embassy bombings, investigators said.
His name was not released, but a Kenyan investigator said that he has been sought by law-enforcement officials since 1998.
Other evidence also links the two attacks. Telephone records show that some of the main suspects in the Mombasa attacks had called the families of various suspects in the embassy bombings who are still at large, investigators say.
“We’ve gone to those families, but we’re not getting answers,” said the Kenyan investigator. “We think they’re either participants, sympathizers or financiers.”
