US launches probe into blasts, toll 141

Four employees of the Indian embassy were injured and four children of Indian origin have been hospitalised with wounds. “The chancery turned into a carpet of glass pieces after the explosion,” Indian envoy Rajiv Bhatia said over phone from Nairobi.

US Ambassador to Kenya prudence Bushnell, who suffered a minor injury, told a news conference that the investigation into the cause of the bombing would take some time, adding “it’s in everybody’s interest to find out who is behindthis evil,” she said.

In neighbouring Dar Es Salaam, in Tanzania, the powerful blast outside the United States embassy, has claimed eight lives and left over 75 injured.The bombing, carried out by international terrorists by detonating a car bomb, has left 108 people dead and 4,257 hurt. About 40 bodies were still believed to be trapped beneath the debris besides some survivors, Kenyan foreign minister Bonaya Godana told reporters in Nairobi.

“It was probable they (terrorists) tried to get into the basement parking of the embassy but could not,” Godana said. Security around diplomatic missions has been beefed up, he added.

Though there is no official information about the group behind the simultaneous blasts, The Al-Hayat Arabic daily from London said today that an unknown group Liberation Army of Islamic Sanctuaries phoned the paper’s Cairo office and claimed responsibility for the twin explosions.American president Bill Clinton has vowed to punish the attackers as a horde of US medical andforensic experts and FBI sleuths landed at Nairobi and Dar es Salaam to help rescue works and find clues.