By The Citizen Team

Tanzania was on high alert yesterday after terror suspects were reported to have escaped a police a dragnet in Kenya last weekend.

One of the suspects is Fazul Abdullah, an al-Qaeda associate and the mastermind of the simultaneous bombing of the US embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi on August 7, 1998.

Eleven people were killed in Dar es Salaam and 85 others seriously injured. The Nairobi blast killed 206 people and left more than 5,000 injured.

Kenyan police have mounted a massive manhunt for the suspects, sealing all routes from the costal town of Malindi to prevent them from slipping out of the country.

In Dar es Salaam, acting Inspector General of Police Mr Paul Chagonja told The Citizen in a telephone interview that they were not taking any chances following the reports.

?We are collaborating with Kenyan security organs in response to reports from Kenya. Our anti-terror organs and other security arms are on alert and prepared to take appropriate measures,? he said, adding that lines of communication with Kenya were open.

Mr Chagonja, who is sitting in for Mr Said Mwema, currently on an official visit to the US, assured the public that police were on alert following fears that Mr Abdullah might cross into Tanzania.
Kenya police?s failure to arrest the suspect comes barely a week after the US State Department issued an alert to all its citizens against travelling to East Africa during the period leading to the 10th anniversary of the Dar es Salaam and Nairobi bombings.

Assisting terrorist
Yesterday in Kenya, three family members said to be accomplices of Mr Abdullah were arraigned before a Mombasa court on charges of assisting the terrorist to avoid arrest in relation to another bomb attack at a tourist resort in Kilifi in November 28, 2002.

Mr Mahfudh Ashur Hemed, his wife Luftiya Abubakar Bashrahil and their son Ibrahim Mahfudh Ashur were arraigned before Mombasa chief magistrate Ms Catherine Mwangi for being accessories by harbouring and assisting Fazul after the attack on Paradise Beach Resort in Kikambala. However, their son was arraigned separately on similar charges.

Mr Hemed and his son, who were arrested on Saturday, were arraigned in court under tight security in a police van, while Luftiya Abubakar Bashrahil was arrested on Sunday.

The magistrate ordered that they remain in police custody for four days following an application by the prosecution who requested for additional time for further investigations. The application, according to the prosecutor Mr Dominic Mate, was based on an affidavit sworn by Mr Daniel Obong?o, a police superintendent attached to the CID headquarters in Mombasa.

The investigators had requested that they be remanded for five days since they did not have sufficient time to conduct investigations, as they had to take them to court within the stipulated period as per the Constitution.

Mr Fazul Abdullah escaped a police dragnet at the weekend, only three hours after two of his accomplices were arrested and interrogated by the Anti-Terrorism Police in Malindi.
Two men were arrested on Saturday as the officers foiled a plot they believe would have resulted to a terrorism attack in Kenya. A Ksh325 million (Sh5.5 billion) reward has been offered to anybody who helps the police to capture Fazul. Security officers have asked anyone with information to reach them on the telephone number 0714746144.

Police net
During the weekend crackdown, the squad of 25 officers backed by the GSU?s Recce Company, raided a house in Malindi where Fazul was believed to have been hiding. They were acting on information they received after interrogating the suspects identified as Ibrahim Mahfoudh and his father, Mahfoudh Ashour.

The officers narrowly missed Fazul, but found two passports and a laptop computer they believe were abandoned as the terror suspect escaped the police dragnet.

The foreign passports bore photographs of Fazul while the computer had not been switched off.

On Sunday, a police source said those in custody had earlier in the day met ?al-Qaeda chiefs for an unknown mission.? On Sunday evening, Human Rights Forum official Al-Amin Kimanthi said Mahfoudh was being held alongside his wife, Lutfia Abubakar and their eight-year-old daughter. He described Mahfoudh as a restaurant owner in Malindi. Mr Kimanthi said it was illegal to hold a child in custody just because its parents were under arrest.

Initially, the suspects were taken to Malindi police station where they were held overnight and interrogated. On Sunday, they were moved to Mombasa under a heavy police escort.

Crossed border
Sources said Fazul may have crossed the border to escape US intelligence officers who have been concentrating their search in Mogadishu, the Somalia capital. Other sources said the man could have fallen ill and was seeking treatment in Kenya. Since the attacks in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi, authorities have always believed that Fazul has been hiding in Somalia but there have been indications that he could have sneaked back to Kenya.

Mahfoudh is believed to have been running errands for Fazul.
The weekend arrests mark another dramatic development in the fight against terrorism in the region. In the past, security officers have foiled several bombing plots on Kenyan soil.
Detonate bomb

They include a planned aerial attack on the new US embassy at Gigiri, an attempt to bomb a tourist hotel at Diani in Mombasa, and plans to detonate a bomb at a strategic Mombasa location during the World Cross Country Championships held in the town early last year. All the three attempts have been traced to Fazul.

Sources say plans to bomb the new US embassy in June 2003 had been uncovered six months in advance and a trap laid to capture the plotters. Counter-terrorism agents learned of the attack in late 2002 after interrogating two suspects who had been arrested in connection with the bombing of Paradise Hotel.

Using vital tips extracted from the two ? who are now detained by the US in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba ? the agents intercepted vital communication between Somalia and Mombasa in regard to the plot. Key names in the plan included Fazul, Swaleh Nabhan and Feisal Ali, a Yemeni citizen.

According to the information given by the two men, the terrorists had recommended an aerial attack that would involve crash-landing a plane on the embassy building, then still under construction, and simultaneously crash into the premises a truck laden with explosives.

Reported by Mkinga Mkinga, Dar es Salaam, and Eunice Mchuhi, Philip Muyanga, Karim Rajan and Fred Mukinda, Nairobi

It later emerged that Fazul had sneaked into Mombasa in May, 2003, to finalise the attack plan which was to be executed the following month. Acting on a tip-off, counter-terrorism agents later trailed him to Mogadishu where they narrowly failed to capture him. However, an accomplice, one Sulayman Hemed, a Yemeni, was captured. He revealed details of the attack during interrogation.

An earlier plan to attack on US interests in the region would have been in July 2001 where a hotel frequented by Americans at Diani was identified as a target. Also targeted was a US cruise ship scheduled to dock at Mombasa in August of the same year.

The attacks would be part of a series targeting US interests across the continent ahead of the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington DC.

And in March last year, the terrorists had planned to strike again when Kenya was hosting the World Cross Country Championships in Mombasa. Three weeks to the event whose opening was officiated by President Kibaki, a suspect, Abdulmalik Mohamed, was arrested at a forex bureau near Fort Jesus in Mombasa. He had gone to change some $6,000 and receive another $10,000 from a known al-Qaeda linkman in London. The sender of the money was also arrested the same day.

Abdulmalik was supposed to use the money to hire a vehicle which would have been used to transport a bomb to a location on the cross-country route. Intelligence agents later traced the planning of the attack to Fazul.

Courtesy of:http://www.thecitizen.co.tz/newe.php?id=7135