United States Embassies Kenya

Every day, two gigantic buses lurch and bounce over hundreds of miles on a bone-jarring dirt road before making a brief, dusty stop in Witu. To the people of this predominantly African Muslim village, these rugged buses are vital links to the outside world, so they happily throw out the welcome mat. But last week, the outside world tromped on that welcome mat, as FBI agents and Kenyan police armed with automatic weapons roared into the village looking for clues to solve the Aug.

Worldwide terrorist incidents reported from 1984 through 1997: 1997: 304 Where to Get Information * The U.S. State Department is handling urgent inquiries about American citizens in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. For information, call the State Department Operations Center, Office of Crisis Management, in Washington, D.C. (202) 647-0900. * The U.S. State Department Web site home page includes information about the bombings at the U.S.

The manicured lawns and well-tended flower beds outside Nairobi's main mortuary Saturday belied a scene of horror inside. In somber silence, relatives of those still missing after Friday's car bomb attack on the U.S. Embassy in downtown Nairobi stood huddled in small groups, bracing themselves for the ordeal they were about to face. Then a door was opened, and an official ushered them in.

Black luxury cars carrying top administration officials zoomed in and out of the White House gates Saturday as hundreds of federal employees scoured intelligence reports and loaded Africa-bound aircraft with everything from German shepherds to jackhammers in a coordinated, governmentwide response to the nearly simultaneous bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa.

There is an old saying in Swahili, the language of most Kenyans, that when two elephants fight, it is the grass that gets trampled. A lot of Kenyans are feeling like grass these days. "The bombers have differences with the Americans, but it is our people who are taking a hammering here," said Supt. Mike Harries, a Nairobi police chaplain surveying the scene of Friday's deadly bomb blast near the U.S. Embassy. "Just look at this place." The wounded are being treated in hospitals.

KENYA * Population: 28 million * Area: 224,960 square miles; slightly smaller than Texas * Capital: Nairobi * Religion: Protestant 40%, Roman Catholic 30%, Muslim 20%, Indigenous beliefs 10% * Economy: GDP (1996) - $8.

Some badly scarred, others blinded, all still shaken, a parade of survivors on Wednesday relived the horror of the 1998 bombing that devastated the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. The stories of death and heroism provided the most gut-wrenching testimony so far at the trial of four alleged followers of Islamic militant Osama bin Laden charged with conspiring to attack two U.S. embassies in Africa.

Israeli experts arrived in Nairobi on Saturday, nearly 30 hours after the bombing, bringing sophisticated equipment and techniques to help locate survivors. Penetrating the Rubble Rescuers use a variety of listening devices and cameras to search for survivors. * Cameras and microphones. Monitor is carried in a frontal pack. Image is transmitted from hand-held SearchCam, a long boom with camera and acoustic microphone on one end. SearchCam can be lowered into cracks and voids.

A Pakistani official here said Sunday that an "Arab national" has confessed to being involved in the bombings of the U.S. embassies in this capital and in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and has been turned over to Kenyan authorities. Fearing a possible violent public reaction against Pakistan's cooperation with the U.S. in the case, Americans gathered at the embassy in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Sunday to await instructions about a possible evacuation.

Jurors in the U.S. embassy bombings trial viewed burned-out, crumpled chunks of a truck that hauled a bomb into the embassy compound in Kenya. Pieces of the Toyota were found after two embassies were bombed on Aug. 7, 1998. The attacks, in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killed 224 people. If convicted, Wadih El-Hage, 40, and Mohamed Sadeek Odeh, 36, could face life in prison while Mohamed Rashed Daoud Al-'Owhali and Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, 27, could face the death penalty.