MOMBASA (Kenya), Nov 28: Fifteen people were killed on Thursday in a suicide bomb attack on a hotel crowded with Israeli tourists in the Kenyan resort of Mombasa, while an Israeli jetliner narrowly escaped a simultaneous missile attack.

As world leaders voiced their outrage, Kenya said the culprits may be linked to the Al Qaeda.

A vehicle carrying three people burst through the barrier around the Paradise Mombasa hotel, on the Indian Ocean coast, and rammed through the front entrance of the building, exploding in the lobby, witnesses said. The three attackers died instantly.

At almost the same time, a charter plane from Israel’s Arkia airlines carrying 261 passengers came under attack from two missiles as it took off from Mombasa. They narrowly missed their target.

Kenyan police said nine Africans and three Israelis, two of them children, were killed in the hotel attack that took place on the eve of Hanukkah, a major Jewish holiday.

“I heard screams and started taking people to the back of the hotel and taking care of the wounded,” said 30-year-old Israeli-American waiter Rebecca Zevi.

A previously unknown group calling itself the Army of Palestine claimed responsibility in Beirut. However, Lebanon dismissed the group as a “fictional organization” and said the claim was aimed at discrediting the country.

Kenyan police said they had arrested two people in Mombasa in connection with the attacks following a tipoff and that the suspects were being questioned.

“We are holding two people of Arab descent,” said Kenya’s minister in charge of internal security Julius Sunkuli. Many Kenyan citizens who live along the Indian Ocean coastal region are of Arab descent.

The impact of the explosion, which took place in the town of Kikambala, just north of Mombasa’s city limits, was so intense that part of the roof of the hotel collapsed and the vehicle carrying the bomb was destroyed.

“It was a matter of running for your life. I thank God I found my exit out,” said hotel storeman, Elvis Dzombe, 24, his head wrapped in a bandage.

At hotel’s swimming pool, the roof of the bar had crashed in and the walkway to it was destroyed, but a blackboard, on which all the events of the day were written, stood intact.

The head of Kenya’s tourist board said the carnage could have been worse if the attackers had arrived even minutes earlier.

“The attackers undershot a bit, they hoped to arrive just as the buses were arriving... It could have been a lot worse,” he said.

Among the dead are thought to have been a group of Kenyan dancers who were performing in the hotel lobby as the bomb exploded. The Israeli survivors, who had arrived on the targeted Arkia plane, were moved to other hotels along the coast.

Kenyan police said they had recovered a missile launcher and the casings of exploded missiles used by attackers on the plane, and that they were looking for a white vehicle and its occupants seen near the airport.

After safely landing the targeted Arkia Boeing 757 in Tel Aviv, pilot Rafi Marek described his ordeal, saying he “felt a slight bump” shortly after takeoff in Mombasa and then “saw two white stripes” beside the aircraft.

Other passengers who noticed a noise and a bump said cabin crew told them the plane must have hit a bird, and Marek said that was also his impression.—AFP