Dar es Salaam bomb suspects held

Dar es Salaam bomb suspects held

NAIROBI (Reuters): The Tanzanian government said yesterday it
had detained some suspects in the bombing of the U.S. embassy in
Dar es Salaam, as delicate efforts continued to rescue a survivor
from the more deadly blast at the U.S. mission in Kenya.

"We have just gotten word that the government of Tanzania has
announced that it has detained three groups of suspects," Susan
Rice, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, told
reporters in Washington.

"We don't know the precise identity of those suspects or
whether they will turn out to be an important lead in this
investigation," Rice said.

A U.S. official said about a dozen people had been detained
and another source close to the investigation said most of the
suspects were believed to be Sudanese or Iraqi nationals.

In Dar es Salaam, Tanzanian police commissioner Wilson
Mwansasu confirmed that "some suspects" had been arrested but
said he did not know how many or if they were considered
principal suspects.

The two car bombs exploded almost simultaneously in Nairobi
and Dar es Salaam last Friday morning.

The death toll in Kenya stands at 180, according to a
government committee set up to deal with the crisis, and U.S.
officials said this number included 12 Americans. More than 5,000
people were injured.

In Tanzania, 10 people died and more than 70 were wounded.

The bodies of 11 of the 12 American dead were flown out of
Nairobi yesterday en route to the United States. The 12th
American victim will be buried in Kenya as she was married to a
Kenyan national.

A previously unknown Islamic group calling itself "The Islamic
Army for the Liberation of Holy Places" claimed responsibility
for the two bombings last Saturday.

It said the Nairobi bombing was carried out by two men from
Mecca in Saudi Arabia, while an Egyptian staged the Dar es Salaam
attack. It did not mention the fate of the men.

U.S. National Security Adviser Sandy Berger told American
television last Sunday it was too soon to publicly identify
possible suspects but added: "We take all of that seriously".

In Nairobi, the sound of tapping from the rubble of an office
block earlier yesterday gave fatigued rescue workers renewed hope
there was at least one more survivor, but by 1350 GMT (8:50 p.m.
Jakarta time yesterday) they had still not reached the source of
the sound.

Rescuers have been working around the clock to reach a woman
known only as "Rose" from the collapsed structure of Ufundi
House, next door to the U.S. mission.

"I am full of hope she is alive and is hanging in there," said
Meital Hallawi, a first officer in the Israeli army rescue unit
leading the operation. "Rose is very strong."

A British army engineer, who arrived at the scene with a
contingent of men about an hour after the blast, told Reuters the
bomb could have contained as much as 250 kilos of explosive. "It
is certainly the biggest bomb I have ever seen."

Jones told Reuters that any number of commercial explosives
could have been used to construct the bomb, including ammonium
phosphate and plastic explosives.

"I reckon it was a pretty well made bomb. I don't think it was
manufactured locally," he said. "I am only surmising, but I would
imagine it was manufactured somewhere else and shipped in."

Investigators have warned it could take time to identify the
perpetrators of the attacks.

In Washington, national security officials said the probe
could be a long one but said the United States would not rest
until the attackers were brought to justice.

But Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi told reporters last
Sunday that investigators were following "a few leads" in
connection with the Nairobi blast.

In Tanzania, a U.S. official said a security camera mounted
atop the bombed embassy in Dar es Salaam may have captured the
bombers in the act. He gave no details about what the tape might
show.

The site -- in a quiet area on the outskirts of the capital --
and the circumstances of the Dar es Salaam bomb could prove more
likely to provide clues to the identity of the bombers.

Investigators will also be focusing on a blue water delivery
tanker which passed the embassy gates seconds before the blast.
The explosion slammed the tanker into the embassy wall.