Tourists 'had been warned to avoid Mombasa'

Warnings of a possible terrorist attack in Mombasa were in circulation weeks before yesterday’s devastating attack on Israeli tourists in the Kenyan resort.

The Australian government warned its citizens against travelling to Mombasa, where terrorists launched a lethal car bomb attack on a tourist hotel as well as an unsuccessful attempt to shoot down an Israeli passenger plane.

The resort is popular with Australians and Britons as well as the Israelis targeted in yesterday’s outrage.

A spokeswoman for the Australian department of foreign affairs confirmed: “Prior to us putting up on the web our revised travel advice on November 7, we had received some new information which indicated that we had to revise our travel advice, warning Australians to defer all non-essential travel to Mombasa, and Australians in Mombasa who were concerned about their security, that they should consider departure.

“The information had come from a range of sources.”

Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, leader of the British-based radical Islamic group al-Muhajiroun, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme today that information suggesting an attack had also been circulating in the Muslim community.

He told the programme that around eight days ago, he had told a journalist that there was a warning circulating in Muslim communities around the world to avoid east Africa. The warning did not refer specifically to Kenya.

Sheikh Mohammed said he could not predict where the next attack would be.

“To be honest, nobody knows where there will be attacks,” he said.

But he added that in various Internet chatrooms, warnings had been posted that there would be attacks on the US and its allies, including Britain, Australia, Canada, France and Germany.

East Africa was also mentioned.

He said there was strong reason to believe that al-Qaida was involved, given its previous attacks on US embassies in that part of the world, and Osama bin Laden’s call for attacks on the West’s tourist industry.