Britain ‘overreacting’ to terrorist threat

TERROR alerts spread worldwide yesterday amid suspicions of new al-Qaida operations, but countries with tourist hotspots accused Britain of overreacting and the United States of being “afraid of its own shadow”.

The alerts, including a British ban on flights to and from Kenya, followed suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia on Monday that killed 34 people, including eight Americans. Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida was blamed.

Kenyans were dismayed at the British flight ban's effect on their country where previous terror attacks have killed hundreds fearing the potential impact on an economy heavily dependent on tourism.

And Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad mocked the United States for issuing travel warnings, including advice to its citizens not to visit his country.

"This is because they felt guilty as they have committed all sorts of actions like killing and oppressing others, and as such they're afraid of their own shadow," the state-run Bernama news agency quoted Mahathir as saying.

But a senior official in Pakistan, which was hit by multiple bombings at Western-branded petrol stations in Karachi on Thursday, said recent attacks might be linked.

"We have got clues. We suspect there could be a connection between the Karachi attacks and the terrorist strikes in Saudi Arabia," said Aftab Sheikh, head of Karachi's provincial interior ministry.

While the Pakistan attacks caused only minor injuries, the bombings in Saudi Arabia the world's biggest oil exporter and a strategic US ally were the most devastating against US interests since September 11, 2001.

Governments around the world believe al-Qaida, Saudi-born bin Laden's terror network which is blamed for the September 11 suicide hijacker attacks in the US, is planning more assaults on Western targets.

"It could be a variety of potential targets. It could be a variety of types of attacks," a US official said, on condition of anonymity.

British Airways suspended all flights in and out of Kenya on Thursday, and the British Foreign Office advised against travelling to the African country unless absolutely necessary.

Earlier this week, the Kenyan government released details of al-Qaida suspect Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, who is accused of masterminding the 1998 bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi, in which 214 people died, and also last November's suicide bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in the Kenyan resort of Mombasa.

Kenya said he had been sighted in Somalia and could be operating within Kenyan borders. The United States also warned its citizens of a "credible threat" of attacks in the region.

But Nairobi said the British travel ban was an overreaction that played into the hands of militants. The National Security Ministry said heightened security in Kenya was only a precaution in view of recent threats and attacks worldwide.

"The situation is regrettable because this information was not supposed to alarm anybody or any country, particularly those who we are cooperating with in the fight against terrorism," spokesman Douglas Kaunda said.

As Saudi, FBI and CIA agents hunted for the masterminds of the Riyadh attacks, the State Department and US officials in Saudi Arabia said they received intelligence of a possible attack on foreign residential compounds in Jeddah, close to the US consulate and King Fahd's summer palace.

Meanwhile, Lebanon said it had smashed a plot to attack the US embassy in Beirut.

Australia and New Zealand warned their nationals to be wary in Southeast Asia, a region still haunted by last year's Bali bombings, which killed more than 200 people. Jemaah Islamiah, a radical Muslim group linked to al-Qaida, was blamed.

The Australian foreign office said citizens should be extremely cautious in Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, East Timor and Brunei. The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that the US authorities plan to make face-to-face interviews standard for most of the millions of people who request a visa to visit the country every year.