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.