FBI chief visits Africa bomb sites

In this story:

• Afghanistan considers bin Laden involvement
• Islamic groups warn of more strikes
• Kenya plans suspect lineup
• Related stories and sites

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (CNN) - FBI Director Louis Freeh said on Thursday that no conclusions had yet been reached regarding two suspects held in connection with a bomb blast at the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam nearly two weeks ago.

"The investigations are progressing well, but we still need more time. We have not made any conclusions regarding the two suspects still being held in police custody," Freeh told reporters on a one-day visit to the Tanzanian capital.

On Saturday, Tanzanian police said they had released 12 of 14 people held in connection with the bomb blast at the U.S. Embassy that killed 10 people.

Another almost simultaneous bomb aimed at the U.S. embassy in neighboring Kenya killed 247 and injured some 5,000.

Freeh, accompanied by the head of the FBI's New York office and several other top agents, went to Africa to oversee bombing inquiries already involving more than 250 FBI investigators.

Later on Thursday, the group was to leave Tanzania for Kenya.

One U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the trip was intended to establish high-level contacts with local police and boost U.S. investigators at the scene.

Tanzania's Director of Criminal Investigations, Rajabu Adadi, declined to give the nationalities of the two remaining detaineess but said they were not being held as prime suspects in the bombing.

The suspects were arrested because of their "dubious characters" and because of intelligence information and their failure to provide identification, police said.

The 14 included six Iraqi nationals, six Sudanese nationals, one Somali and one Turkish national.

Freeh said the FBI was still collecting physical and forensic evidence and seeking outside information.

Hundreds of passers-by and rescue workers crowded the embassy site in the hours after the blast, but the FBI said enough "trace evidence" was left for forensics experts to work on.

Meanwhile, Kenyans with fresh physical and emotional wounds gathered for an ecumenical memorial service Thursday for the people who died in the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi.

Osama bin Laden

In Pakistan, two people were being questioned in the bombings. The men reportedly were named by a suspect with alleged links to exiled Saudi millionaire Osama bin Laden, whom U.S. officials call a major sponsor of terrorism.

U.S. officials were rebuffed Wednesday in their efforts to get to bin Laden, who lives in Afghanistan. The Taliban religious army, which rules most of Afghanistan, said it would not hand him over even if the United States had proof he was behind the bombings.

Afghan Foreign Minister Mullah Mohammed Hasan said he was convinced bin Laden had nothing to do with the embassy bombings, but if proven otherwise, bin Laden would be punished in Afghanistan. "It is not right to give a Muslim to an infidel country," he said.

However, a Taliban official said Thursday that Afghanistan's rulers would consider putting bin Laden on trial in their country or turning him over to U.S. authorities if Washington provides evidence he was involved in the bombings.

"We do not reject any opportunity for talk," said Wakil Ahmed Mutawakil, the spokesman for the Taliban and the second-highest ranking official of their Supreme Council.

"If the Americans do have evidence we would like to see them and talk to them about what has to be done," he told CNN via telephone from Kandahar, Afghanistan. "But we will not hand him over because of pressure. If necessary we will try him ourselves in Afghanistan."

A group reportedly founded by bin Laden -- the World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders -- issued a defiant warning Wednesday in the respected London-based Arabic newspaper al-Hayat. The statement said that "strikes will continue from everywhere."

Al-Hayat said that statement was accompanied by others from the Islamic Army for the Liberation of Holy Shrines, which claimed responsibility for the embassy bombings.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Lee McClenny said the Clinton administration was unable to say whether the threats were credible or frivolous "copycat" claims. "Naturally, we'll be watching closely and taking prudent security measures."

In Nairobi, 15 FBI agents and six Kenyan detectives wearing bulletproof vests raided the Hilltop Hotel on Tuesday and carried away several cartons. FBI agents returned Wednesday to take pictures of the hotel, located in a seedy downtown area a mile from the U.S. Embassy, construction and hotel workers said.

The Daily Nation, a Kenyan newspaper, reported that the agents were acting on information provided by Mohammed Saddiq Odeh, who was arrested in Pakistan on the day of the bombings and returned August 14 to Kenyan authorities. Odeh is reportedly linked to bin Laden.

The Daily Nation said a bomb containing 1,760 pounds of TNT was assembled over several days at the hotel under Odeh's direction.

The paper said police were holding three other people in connection with the attack.

Kenyan authorities, meantime, planned a lineup to see if eyewitnesses to the Nairobi bombing could identify Odeh.