Heightened Watch in East Africa for Signs of Terror Plots

A sense of alert has been growing in this East African nation following reports of the sighting of a terrorism suspect accused of involvement in attacks on American and Israeli targets in the region that took hundreds of lives. In recent days, British and Israeli airlines have suspended flights into Kenya while the United States Embassy — as target of a coordinated strike in 1998 on American missions here and in neighboring Tanzania that killed 224 people — has taken the unusual step of telling its 200 staff members that they may leave the country. An embassy spokesman said none had yet left, though some might by the end of the week. Additionally, the State Department in Washington has told Americans — some 5,000 of whom are registered with the embassy here as living in Kenya — that there is a “credible threat” of a terror attack. Last Wednesday, a State Department travel advisory warned of a continuing threat of terrorists using shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles, the same type of weapon used in a attack on an Israeli jetliner leaving Mombasa, the port city on the Indian Ocean, on Nov. 28. The missiles missed their mark, but 16 people died in the coordinated suicide bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel near Mombasa. Full Story