Tourists stranded in Kenya terror alert

Thousands of tourists were stranded in Kenya today as security forces hunted for a top al-Qaida suspect thought to be planning a rocket attack on an airliner.

The British government suspended all British flights to Nairobi last night after the Kenyan security minister said a key member of al-Qaida, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, was in the country.

The move severely threatened tourism, the lifeblood of the East African country’s fragile economy.

About 500,000 foreigners visit Kenya each year – Britons make up the biggest group taking big game safaris or beach holidays, with 80,000 flying annually.

In London, the Department of Transport said the threat to British aviation was “imminent”.

The last flight from Nairobi to London left at 8.25pm yesterday and arrived back at 5am today with 228 passengers on board.

British Airways cancelled its daily service from Heathrow. Travellers wanting to go to Kenya were told to delay their trip, consider another destination or claim a full refund.

The airline is transporting hundreds of passengers from Kenya to neighbouring to Tanzania to catch flights home.

Kenyan security services were put on high alert yesterday by National Security minister Chris Murungaru, who also beefed up protection around the British High Commission and US embassy.

The move followed Monday night’s devastating suicide bomb attacks on western compounds in the Saudi Arabian capital that killed 34 people and were blamed on Osama bin Laden’s terror network.

Britain and the US warned their citizens this year that al-Qaida or its sympathisers could attack countries in East Africa.

Murungaru released a photograph of Mohammed, who is believed to have been the mastermind behind the August 7, 1998, bomb blast at the old US embassy in Nairobi that killed more than 200 Kenyans.

The wanted man is also believed to have been involved in the November 2002 bombing of a hotel popular with Israelis near Mombasa, where more than 10 Kenyans died.

Mohammed, alias Harun, is originally from the Comoros Islands, but has joint Kenyan-Comoran citizenship. He is aged between 27 and 29 and was last seen in the Somali capital Mogadishu, the minister said.

Kenya last night attacked Britain’s “extreme action” in banning the flights, saying it played into the hands of terrorists.

Murungaru said: “The action taken by the British government was extreme. Actions like this may make it appear like terrorists are making a moral score, a moral victory.”

Terrorist Mohammed, a comrade of Osama Bin Laden, is said to have masterminded the 1998 bombing of the US embassies in Nairobi and Tanzania which killed 224.

He was also involved in last November’s bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa when 16 died. Minutes before the attack two missiles were fired at a Boeing 757.

Earlier this week, 34 people were killed, including two Britons, when Al-Qaeda bombed western compounds in Saudi Arabia.

Kenya called Britain’s move an ’over-reaction’ and claimed there had been no specific threat