Two children die in Mombasa hotel blast

Two Israeli children were killed today when a suspected car bomb rocked a resort hotel filled with Israelis in Mombasa, Kenya.

Israeli Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the two had died in the apparent suicide attack on the Israeli-owned Paradise Hotel, but could not confirm other reports putting the death toll as high as eight.

At about the same time, at least one missile was fired at, but missed, an Israeli plane that had just taken off from the coastal resort.

Netanyahu said he had no information about who was behind the double attack, but suspicion immediately fell on al-Qaida terrorists.

Witnesses said several bodies could be seen outside the popular hotel.

“I can see the bodies of local residents,” said Israeli witness Aharon Hammel. “I don’t know about the Israelis.

“The whole hotel is burned. The whole hotel,” he said. “There is a lot of smoke. The whole hotel is burned totally, both wings, the lobby and everything, it is all burned.”

The blast went off at the Israeli-owned Paradise Hotel at 08:00am (5am Irish time) said Colonel Bonventur Wendo, director of Kenya’s National Disaster Centre.

Israel Army Radio said Israeli embassy staff had arrived at the hotel to protect their citizens, and that security officials were investigating whether the attack was carried out by al-Qaida.

Israel TV said a car crashed through a barrier outside the hotel, and that explosives were apparently thrown from the vehicle at the hotel.

The blast did not cause major damage, the report said.

“I heard a loud explosion,” said an Israeli hotel guest identified only as Rami.

A hotel guest, Dr Nimrod Grissarov, had arrived early today with a group from the Israeli town of Beersheba, with children celebrating a Bat Mitzva.

“I can tell personally you I treated three victims whom I would classify as moderately wounded... they had head injuries, a kidney injury,” he said.

He said there were several people with limb injuries and said one woman may have died. One Israeli television report said a total of three Israelis were feared dead.

Meanwhile, two missiles were fired at an Israeli aircraft that had just taken off from Mombasa airport, said Ron Prosor, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman.

The pilot saw a flash of light on the left side of the plane, said an official with the Arkia charter company, Shlomo Hanael.

The aircraft was lightly damaged, but no one on board was hurt, Israel TV’s Channel Two said. The aircraft, carrying 260 passengers and 10 crew, had initially prepared for an emergency landing in Nairobi, but then decided to continue to Israel.

Netanyahu described the apparent missile attack as “a very dangerous escalation of terror”.

“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,” Netanyahu said.

“Today, they’re firing the missiles at Israeli planes, tomorrow they will fire missiles at American planes, British planes, every country’s aircraft. Therefore, there can be no compromise with terror.”

The Israel Embassy was cordoned off in Nairobi today.

Kenya was the scene of a terrorist attack on August 7, 1998, when a huge truck bomb blast outside the US embassy in Nairobi killed 219 people and wounded 5,000.

A nearly simultaneous attack on the US embassy in neighbouring Tanzania killed 12 people and injured more than 80.