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| East/Subsaharan Africa |
| Police Ransack Kenyan ’Bomb House’ |
| 2002-12-18 |
| Police have searched a house in Mombasa where the bombs used in the November 28 Coast terrorist attack are believed to have been assembled. Prime suspect Mr Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan and an unidentified associate lived in the posh rented house as they worked on the final plans to attack Israeli interests in Mombasa, police revealed yesterday. Paid Sh66,000 advance rent in cash for three months Kenyan and Israeli security agents were led to the four-bedroom house in Giriama Road in Tudor estate by Mr Nabhan's wife, Fatuma. Two families lived in the house - Mr Nabhan, his wife and their one-year-old child and his associate and his wife. "Bomb experts combed and dusted the house and the compound on Sunday night and found vital evidence showing the bomb was likely to have been assembled there," a senior police source said. He added that they found traces of the material used to manufacture bombs. Police also established that the gas cylinders used to make the bombs were welded in a garage in the house. Good police work The new developments emerged two days after the 17-year-old Fatuma was picked up by the investigators on Saturday at her mother's house in Lamu town, near the Kenya-Somalia border. The source said Fatuma moved to Lamu two days before the terrorists blew up Paradise Hotel, killing 10 Kenyans, three Israelis and three suicide bombers. The source said that after police took Fatuma back to Mombasa, she showed them the house where she and her husband had lived. He said: "Nabhan and his wife lived a secretive life and they accommodated an unidentified couple. We have been informed the house was frequented by people of Arab origin." Oh, that's a big suprise! The tenants moved out of the house two days before the attack. Fatuma went to Lamu while her 23-year-old husband went underground for a day before he went to see his father-in-law on November 29. He visited his wife at her mother's home on December 2 and that is the last time his family saw him, the police said. Fatuma told the police her husband later called her twice and said he was hiding in Baidoa town in the war-ravaged Somalia. UPDATE:Maybe, maybe not The prime suspect in the suicide bomb attack that killed 17 people at the Mombasa Paradise Hotel in Kilifi District is still in Kenya, police have said. The suspect, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, 23, might still be holed up along the Kenya-Somali border. Police believe the suspect is still holed up somewhere on one of the Lamu islands and has not crossed over to Somalia. Told the wife a phoney story after you left her behind, did you? Shows signs of brains, not cannon fodder type. |
| Posted by:Steve |