Bin Laden killing 'justice' for 1998 bombing: Kenya

The killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan is an "act of justice" for the victims of the 1998 bombing at the US embassy in Nairobi, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki said on Monday."On behalf of the government and people of the Republic of Kenya I commend all those people behind the successful tracking down and killing of Osama bin Laden," Kibaki said in a statement.
"The killing of Osama has taken place nearly 13 years after the terrorist bombings in Nairobi that led to the death of over 200 people, in an act believed to have been masterminded by Osama," Kibaki said."His killing is an act of justice to those Kenyans who lost their lives and the many more who suffered injuries."On August 7, 1998, the US embassies in Nairobi and in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania were hit almost simultaneously by truck bombs that left 224 people dead in all and more than 5,000 injured.The bomb that hit the US embassy in central Nairobi alone left more than 200 dead and several thousand injured. The building housing the embassy was severely damaged and a building next door collapsed completely.Thousands of people heading to work close to the embassy were hit, notably by pieces of glass from nearby buildings whose windows were shattered by the force of the explosion.The twin bombings, claimed by Al-Qaeda, were considered the first major operation by the organisation led by Bin Laden."It is important to remember that hundreds of Kenyans and Americans were killed and wounded when the U.S. Embassy was attacked by al Qaeda on August 7, 1998," a statement from the US embassy in Kenya said, adding: "We will continue to work with Kenya and the international community to combat terrorism."Al Qaeda also claimed responsibility for two almost simultaneous attacks on Israeli targets in the Kenyan coastal resort of Mombasa on November 28, 2002.A car bomb attack on an Israeli-owned hotel near Mombasa killed 18 people -- 12 Kenyans, three Israelis and three presumed suicide bombers -- but a missile attack on an Israeli charter jet taking off from Monbasa airport was unsuccessful."The death of Osama bin Laden is a defining moment in the fight against terrorism," Kenyan Government Spokesman Alfred Mutua said in a statement.
"Kenya was the first country to be attacked by Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden's death comes as a relief to many of the victims of the bombings in East Africa," he added."As a country and a region, we are realistic that terrorism is an ideology that will not end overnight due to Osama bin Laden's death but hope that his death will be the beginning of the end of terrorism," Mutua said.