Threat Against Airlines

U.S. intelligence officials have learned that al-Qaida is preparing a terrorist attack in east Africa, most likely in Kenya, that could involve an attempt to shoot down an airliner. The State Department late Wednesday issued travel advisories urging Americans to avoid travel to the region, and Britain yesterday suspended all flights to and from Kenya. U.S. airlines have no scheduled flights to east Africa. In separate advisories – one for east Africa and the other for Kenya – State Department officials warned that the “threat to aircraft by terrorists using shoulder-fired missiles continues in Kenya.” In coordinated attacks in November, al-Qaida terrorists in the coastal city of Mombasa, Kenya, were unsuccessful in an attempt to shoot down an Israeli charter plane with two surface-to-air missiles but killed 15 in a car bomb attack on a nearby hotel patronized by Israeli tourists. One of the suspected masterminds behind the Nov. 28 attacks in Mombasa, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, is on the FBI’s al- Qaida most-wanted list. He is believed to have returned to Kenya, according to Kenya’s security ministry. Mohammed, who is under federal indictment for his alleged role in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, fled to nearby Somalia after the Mombasa attacks. Full Story