A senior al-Qaida terrorist who is believed responsible for
past attacks against Israeli and American targets in Kenya
and Tanzania is reported to have gone recently to east
Africa. Israeli security sources, quoted by Ze'ev Schiff
writing in Ha'aretz, say that he is plotting an attack
against an Israeli or an American target. He is already on
the FBI's list of most wanted terrorists, based on his
previous activities.
Fawzal Abdullah Mohammed is said to be responsible for the
two attacks in Mombassa, Kenya last November, when a booby
trapped car blew up at the Paradise Hotel, killing three
Israelis and 11 Kenyans. The same day a shoulder-launched
missile was fired at an Arkia plane, but it missed. Mohammed
is also tied to blowing up of the American embassies in Kenya
and Tanzania in August 1998, when some 250 people were
killed.
Kenyan authorities recent arrested five suspect Islamic
activists but freed them after interrogation. The five were
questioned about a planned double attack on the new American
embassy in Nairobi, from land and from the air. There were
suspicions that the plotters intended to have a pilot crash a
light aircraft on the embassy and at the same time to send in
an explosives-laden truck. Among the arrested was a director
of a mosque and an Islamic girls' school.
As far as al-Qaida is concerned, preferred targets for attack
-- in Africa and in general -- are American and Israeli
targets -- not only official institutions but also tourist
sites that are frequented by citizens of both countries and
tend to be less well-guarded.
Some governments have instructed their citizens to avoid
visiting Kenya because of concern about terror. The Americans
have pulled some of their diplomats out of the country and
the Nairobi embassy was temporarily closed, and flights to
Kenya stopped. Britain totally canceled all flights to
Mombassa, and Israel canceled all flights to Kenya.
Intelligence services around the world have been
investigating the disappearance of a Boeing 727 from Angola
about two months ago. The privately-owned plane did not reach
the destination it declared when taking off, and it is not
known what happened to it. Some reports say that before it
disappeared, the plane's seats were removed and the passenger
area was fitted with fuel tanks, raising suspicions that it
could be used for a terror attack.
Local Terror
A senior Israeli source predicted that the current lull in
terror would last longer than the three months the
Palestinians declared at the outset. He did not predict how
much longer, but the IDF is preparing for another outbreak of
terror.
In Washington, PA prime minister Mohammed Abbas indicated
that he plans to disarm the terror groups through negotiation
and by including them in the government. Israeli sources
expressed skepticism, but one said that Israel would be happy
if Abbas could achieve it. Abbas has said many times they he
plans no armed confrontations with the violent Palestinian
factions.
Meanwhile Ahmed Jbarra, 68, the veteran Palestinian prisoner
who served 28 years of a life sentence for murdering 14
people when he planted a booby-trapped refrigerator in
Jerusalem's Kikar Zion in 1975 and who was released by Israel
on the eve of the Aqaba summit in Jordan last month, called
on Palestinians to kidnap Israeli soldiers. According to the
Hamas-affiliated Palestine Information Center, Jbarra spoke
at a Bethlehem rally held in his honor on Sunday night where
he "indirectly" urged Palestinians to abduct IDF soldiers.
Jbarra, also known as Abu Sukkar, was appointed earlier this
month as Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's
special adviser on the issue of the prisoners in Israeli
custody.
"I would like to remind all the national and Islamic factions
that in return for three soldiers, Israel released 1,150
prisoners in the famous exchange," Jbarra was quoted as
saying, referring to the 1985 prisoner swap known as the
"Jibril deal" between Israel and the Syrian-backed Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestinian-General Command. Many
of those released by Israel later came back to participate as
terrorists in the intifadah.
Missing Israeli soldier Found Murdered
The body of Cpl. Oleg Shaikhet, 20, Hy"d of Upper
Nazareth, was discovered on Monday morning a week after he
went missing, buried in an olive grove near Arab villages not
far from his home.
Volunteer Bedouin trackers discovered Shaikhet's body under a
fresh mound of earth in the grove between Kafr Kana and
Mash'had village, with a few spots of blood nearby. Police
said the murder appears to be the work of terrorists.
Internal Security Minister Tzachi Hanegbi said the proximity
of Arab villages to the scene of the murder made the
possibility that Shaikhet was kidnapped and killed by Israeli
Arab terrorists among the lines of inquiry being conducted by
police.
Shaikhet was apparently murdered soon after he was abducted,
but he managed to throw away his identification tags. The
Army recommends that soldiers drop a trail of items to help
trackers to locate them if abducted. Searchers found the
items that Shaikhet dropped and soon found his body nearby.
ZAKA volunteers helped in recovering his remains.
No Palestinian terrorist organization claimed responsibility
for the kidnapping. This fact, coupled with the location of
the body, seemed to indicate that the perpetrators could have
been from the area. Israeli security sources also say that
they have no information linking the crime with any regular
Palestinian terror organization.
Shaikhet apparently took a ride as a hitchhiker with the
terrorists. The Army forbids hitchhiking, but soldiers do not
always observe the ban.
The local council of Kafr Kana, an Israeli Arab village near
the scene of the crime, held an emergency meeting and issued
a statement condemning the murder, and reiterating the desire
of local residents to continue to repair harmonious ties with
their Jewish neighbors in Upper Nazareth.
The United Arab List party called the murder "inhuman," with
party head Taleb a-Sanaa calling on the public not to blame
the entire Arab population for the soldier's murder. Hadash
condemned the killing, saying that it is a crime that
seriously harms both Jews and Arabs.
