NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — FBI and Kenyan agents identified pieces of the vehicle used in the deadliest attack on a U.S. Embassy and were questioning about five suspects Thursday in an investigation that was “progressing well.”
More than 20 U.S.-Kenyan investigating teams were analyzing fragments from the blast, while the grim bomb site resounded with the sounds of tinkling glass from cleanup work and the hum of generators from FBI tents set up to study the evidence.
FBI agents have been successful in identifying parts of the vehicle that exploded at the embassy, Sheila Horan, FBI special agent in charge of the investigation, said, without providing details about the evidence.
Nearly simultaneous bombings at the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killed 257 people and injured more than 5,500. Among those killed were 12 Americans, all in Nairobi.
U.S. Ambassador Prudence Bushnell, who was slightly injured in the blast, toured the Nairobi site with FBI agents, gesturing at the embassy. Marines kept guard from behind memorial flowers placed on the mission’s front steps.
Deputy Police Commissioner Peter Mbuvi said about five suspects were being questioned about the Nairobi bombing “because of suspicious activities,” including one spotted by an American at the embassy after the blast.
The Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims, which represents all the nation’s Muslim organizations, said police had detained at least six Muslims in the blast and four remained in custody.
One of the detainees, Amjad Javed, was arrested five minutes after the blast when he rushed to the embassy to see whether his friend, Farhat Sheikh, was all right, said deputy secretary-general Ibrahim Lethome. Sheikh was among the 34 Kenyan embassy employees who died, he said.