Tanzania Bomb Attack Suspects Detained

Authorities in Tanzania have taken one or more suspects into custody in connection with the bombing of the US embassy in Dar es Salaam. This is what I reported from the Tanzanian capital on that and new information on the victims of the blast.

Police Commissioner Wilson Mwansasu says suspects have been detained in connection with the bomb attack.

But for the moment, he is refusing to give out details. He indicates more information may be released after, he says, the case file has been put in order.

US officials in Dar es Salaam have declined comment. An embassy spokesman says he will not confirm or deny anything while the investigation into the blast goes on.

The weekly “East African” has reported police in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha were said to be on the tracks of what the newspaper calls a group of Muslim fundamentalists wanted in connection with the bombing.

Meanwhile, as the investigation continues, US officials in Dar es Salaam have disclosed that one of those killed in the bomb attack was a Kenyan.

He was Abdurahman Abdalla, who just one week before the explosion received his immigrant visa to go to the United States. He was to accompany his American wife, a Fulbright scholar who had been studying in Tanzania.

According to these officials, she went to the embassy to cash a cheque, while Mr. Abdalla waited outside.

American officials have also revealed that just a little more than half-hour before the deadly blast that claimed the Kenyan's life, the embassy conducted its weekly alarm test -- with different siren patterns sounded for a fire, for an armed attack and for a bomb.

Tanzanian survivors of the explosion who were inside the embassy at the time have told reporters they were concerned when they heard the alarms. They were told not to worry -- that it was only a test.

Despite the disruptions and turmoil caused by the blast, staff at the mission have managed in the three days since the bombing to set up a temporary embassy at the coastal residence of an American official. They say the usual services of an embassy are not yet being provided in full, but emergencies are being dealt with.

The shattered embassy itself remains cordoned off by heavily-armed US marine guards. American bomb experts and counter-terrorism officials are slowly sifting through the debris in the search for clues as to who may have been responsible.

Embassy officials will not discuss any details of the ongoing investigation. But they say it is a serious investigation -- one that will last as long as necessary.