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CNN LIVE AT DAYBREAK

Kenyan Police Questioning Twelve People

Aired November 29, 2002 - 07:03   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: More now on those deadly terrorist attacks yesterday in Kenya. Investigators right now from that country, and Israel, teaming up, looking into the possibility that al Qaeda is to blame for both the hotel bombing and the attempted downing of that jetliner.
Catherine Bond back with us again today by way of videophone in Mombasa for the latest there.

Catherine -- hello.

CATHERINE BOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kenya's chief of police now saying that as many as 12 people are being held for questioning here, but the police making a distinction between questioning people for information and arresting people on suspicion of direct involvement in the attacks.

So, they haven't arrested anybody, they say, on suspicion of involvement in these attacks here yesterday, but they are holding some people and talking to them and trying to get information from them that they feel might be useful in connection with what's happened here.

We've also got information from eyewitnesses who saw the three men inside the vehicle that drove into this area (ph) yesterday and exploded a bomb in front of the hotel, a bomb that killed at least 13 people. Eyewitnesses say the three men were young, in their 20s, one of them appeared to be Arab, another of Arab-African descent. The third in the back of the car, they couldn't see, because the windows were tinted.

They said the men drove up and down this road for about 20 minutes, approaching the gates of the hotel three times before rushing the barrier on the third time and driving the car down, swooping down in front of the reception and exploding the bomb.

Investigators are looking very carefully at the crater that that car bomb caused. They can find vehicle parts scattered around the hotel compound. They have collected many of these, marking them yesterday, and putting them in bags.

They even feel that they have found the detonator of the bomb. It's a fairly simple device that a Kenyan investigator was showing an American embassy investigator yesterday. It looked like a manual detonator and a wire leading down to a metal casing.

So, they feel that they've got quite a lot from the hotel site, including body parts, which may belong to the suicide bombers -- Bill.

HEMMER: Catherine, about the dozen people now being held for questioning, do we know much about who they are?

BOND: Kenyan police have said that two of them are a couple -- a man and a woman -- who were at the hotel here and checked out yesterday. They were picked up as a result of a sort of routine check. Police were asking hotels to call them if people checked out shortly after this bomb blast.

They're Spanish-speaking, carrying American passports, according to hotel staff, and they appear to have some connections with Florida. They were also making calls to Spain.

But although the police chief has said the information they are providing is useful, there's nothing really that was concrete that linked them at this point to the attacks here -- Bill.

HEMMER: Catherine, thank you -- Catherine Bond by way of videophone live there in Mombasa.

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