The U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, after the August 7, 1998, bombing

October 8, 1999
Web posted at: 7:55 a.m. EDT (1155 GMT)

NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- The FBI and South African police have arrested more suspects in last year's bombings at the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.

U.S. sources monitoring the case told CNN that one suspect in the Tanzania bombing was either en route to or already in custody in the United States.

"The connection was a Tanzanian connection," one official said. "The person would not be a Nairobi person."

A South African newspaper Friday carried reports of other arrests in both bombings.

The Cape Times quoted unnamed U.S. sources as saying that the FBI and local police had detained several suspects and expected to make more arrests. The sources said the suspects were not South Africans but no further details were given.

South African police referred queries on the newspaper report to the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria, which declined to comment.

The August 1998 bombings at the U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's capital, and Kenya's capital Nairobi killed 224 people.

The attacks in Kenya, top, and Tanzania killed 224 people and wounded 4,000 others

The United States already has charged 15 people with the bombings, including fugitive Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden, who is accused of masterminding the attacks. Five of those defendants are being held in the United States while the others, including bin Laden, still are at large.

The U.S. State Department has offered rewards of $5 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of bin Laden and other wanted men suspected of planning the bombings.

Bin Laden has been living in Afghanistan for several years as a "guest" of the country's Taliban Islamic movement. Taliban officials have rejected U.S. calls to extradite him.

Shortly after the embassy bombings, the United States launched missile strikes against bases in Afghanistan alleged to have been used by bin Laden's al-Qaeda group and a medical installation in Sudan alleged to be producing chemical weapons.

A press conference on the latest arrests in the case was scheduled for Friday in New York.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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