14th August, 1998
New Terrorist Organisation
Today's London Times reported that Saudi multimillionaire in hiding, Osama bin Laden, has created a new terrorist organisation called the World Islamic Front for Jihad against Jews and Americans with the support of Iranian and other Islamic militants. Bin Laden is thought by some to be responsible for the U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. The report said that there is evidence that Mr bin Laden, operating from Afghanistan, has pulled together several terrorist groups dedicated to the co-ordination of a jihad, or holy war, against the U.S. and Israel.
MORE INDONESIAN RIOTS AS COUNTRY SLIDES INTO CHAOS
A Reuters report yesterday confirms the stories of missionaries on the field that say rioters attacked shops owned by ethnic Chinese as violence increased in two towns in West Java, Indonesian. A mob of over a thousand in once incident burned a hotel complex. Thousands of soldiers were deployed in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, following rumours that riots would break out on 17 August, Indonesia's independence day. Ethnic Chinese have been scapegoats for the crippling economic crisis which has gripped the country. Prices of basic foods and commodities have been rising out of control as incomes have collapsed while unemployment mounts.
NEW ISLAMIC MILITANT GROUP CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY FOR U.S. EMBASSY BOMBINGS AND VOWS MORE ATTACKS
Late last night, a Reuters report from Dubai in the Persian Gulf said that an unheard of Islamic group said they were responsible for the simultaneous bombings at U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. They also vowed more attacks to drive American and Western troops from Muslim countries.
In statements sent to a television station broadcasting to the Gulf, those claiming to have planned the attacks, the Islamic Army for the Liberation of Holy Places, said the Nairobi bombing was carried out by two men from Mecca in Saudi Arabia while an Egyptian staged the Dar es Salaam. They called for the release from prison of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind Egyptian cleric serving a life sentence in the U.S. for plotting bombings in New York, and several others.
The death toll in the two bombings has risen to 198 according
to an Associated Press report early this morning.
Terrorist Threats Against the U.S.
Patrick Kennedy, a U.S. State Department spokesman has acknowledged that since the tragic terrorist bombings in Kenya and Tanzania the U.S. has received more than a dozen threats of similar action at other locations. He said that the threats were being taken seriously and that all American facilities worldwide have been on a heightened state of alert. He was quoted as saying, "Some of them could conceivably be real. Some of them simply may be copycats."
ABC News reported this morning that arrests have been made in the embassy bombings. The Jerusalem Post reported today that a US diplomat in Tanzania authorities said yesterday that a security camera on top of the embassy in Dar es Salaam have a videotape of bombers.
The Jerusalem Post also said that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Sunday offered the help of Israeli intelligence agencies in tracking down the terrorists. He also reportedly said that early indications were that the bombings were the result of "international terrorism centered on Islamic fundamentalism." Israel and the U.S. believe that exiled Saudi billionaire Osama bin Laden, who lives in Afghanistan, was one of the main suspects.