'Al Qaeda' missile horror

Passenger video: dramatic footage

The attacks, in which at least eleven people died and 80 were injured, are being blamed on Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

In the first attack two missiles were fired from the back of a Mitsubishi Shogun which narrowly missed a 757 Israeli charter jet with 270 people on board just after take-off from Mombasa airport.

Ground staff saw a missile streak towards the jet but it missed. The plane was not damaged and landed later in Tel Aviv. Passengers were only told what had happened when the plane landed.

Five minutes later a car packed with explosives was rammed into reception area of the Paradise Hotel 13 miles north of Mombasa.

The hotel lobby was full of tourists, mainly Israelis, coming down for breakfast who were greeted by dancers in traditional dress. Three Israelis - including two girls - several Kenyans and three suicide bombers are thought to be among the dead.

The massive bomb ripped apart the main building and set fire to the traditional thatched roofs of many of the out-houses.

The fires made it difficult for rescuers to reach guests feared trapped in their rooms, adding to fears that the death toll could rise.

Among those caught in the blast was Kelly Hartog who said: "We were greeted by beautiful dancing girls. Two minutes later we heard a massive explosion. The entire building shook. I saw people covered in blood, including children. Everyone seemed to be screaming.

"People were screaming for water, but there was no bottled water and the tap water is undrinkable. I tried to occupy myself tending to the children. They said 'Where are my parents?'"

One report said that a light aircraft was seen above the hotel at the same time as the car bomb went off and that an object was dropped from the plane and exploded near the reception area.

The passenger jet was operated by Israeli charter company Arkia.

Both attacks came at about 5am London time. "It looks like a co- ordinated attack," police spokesman Jesse Mituki said.

Witnesses said they saw bodies lying in the hotel. "I can see eight bodies in the lobby. Most appear to be adult men," one of the witnesses said from outside the wreckage.

The hotel is in Kikambala, a beach resort on the Indian Ocean coast. It is Israeli-owned and popular with Israeli tourists. Raymond Matiba, chairman of the Kenyan tourist board, said: "In front of the hotel I could clearly see laid out several bodies, all traditional dancers in tribal dress. I could also see the body of one tourist."

A barman at a hotel opposite the Paradise said: "I saw a car forcing its way into the gate. It had three people of Arabic origin and after it got to the reception area I heard an explosion and the whole hotel was on fire."

Israeli Aharon Hammel, who owns a hotel near the Paradise, said the building was badly damaged. He said: "I can see the bodies of local residents. I don't know about the Israelis. The whole hotel is burned, the whole hotel. There is a lot of smoke. The whole hotel is burned totally, both wings, the lobby and everything, it's all burned." The casualty unit manager at the city's main hospital, the Aga Khan hospital, said he had received about six casualties from the blast. "They are all foreign and have different injuries. Some have bruises, others have deep cuts and some have metal objects stuck in their bodies." Seven of the bodies were said to have been burned beyond recognition.

An administrator at the the Mombasa Hospital, one of the city's largest, said they had admitted casualties including two children, mostly suffering from burns and fractures. A middle-aged woman was being treated in intensive care.

"One Kenyan man was in a very serious condition. He was rushed straight to the operating theatre," he said.

Israel has sent two Hercules transporter planes and doctors to take the Israeli injured and dead back to Tel Aviv. Nairobi police said the missiles fired at the plane came from a Mitsubishi Shogun jeep a mile from Mombasa airport.

They were believed to have been Sam-7 or Sam-9 surface-to-air missiles.
type of missile is heat-seeking, which makes the fact that the jet survived all the more remarkable.

The police spokesman said the four-wheel drive vehicle was now "on the run" and being pursued. Kenyan police said they had arrested two suspects.

Magda Mali-Kalantar of the Arkia charter firm said: "Seconds after the plane had taken off ground staff saw a missile shoot towards it. We have spoken to the crew and passengers on board and they say they did not see the missile.

"The pilot told us everything was fine, the missile had not hit the plane and that they would continue to Tel Aviv airport as normal." The Israel embassy in Mombasa was today cordoned off.

In 1998 the US embassies in the Kenyan capital Nairobi and in neighbouring Tanzania were destroyed in simultaneous car bomb attacks in which more than
230 people were killed and 5,000 injured.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw condemned today's attack.

Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Post reported that two of the suicide bombers had been identified. They were named as Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, of Egyptian origin, and Faed Ali Sayam, a Kenyan Muslim

The firing of missiles on an Israeli plane marked a dangerous escalation of terror, Israeli foreign minister Binyamin Netanyahu said. "It means that terror organisations and the regimes behind them are able to arm themselves with weapons which can cause mass casualties anywhere and everywhere," Mr Netanyahu said.

"Today, they're firing the missiles at Israeli planes, tomorrow they'll fire missiles at American planes, British planes, every country's aircraft.

"Therefore, there can be no compromise with terror."