 |
| CNN WEB SITES: |
|
| TIME INC. SITES: |
| MORE SERVICES: |
| video on demand |
| video archive |
| audio on demand |
| news email services |
| free email accounts |
| desktop headlines |
| pointcast |
| DISCUSSION: |
| message boards |
| chat |
| feedback |
| SITE GUIDES: |
| help |
| contents |
| search |
| FASTER ACCESS: |
| europe |
| japan |
| WEB SERVICES: |
 | ||||
Sources: Traces of ammonium nitrate, fuel oil found at Nairobi bomb site
In this story:
- Africa bombs may be similar in composition to Oklahoma City bomb
- No suspects in custody, despite detainees
- Related stories and sites
Web posted at: 2:47 a.m. EDT (0647 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Investigators have found what they suspect are traces of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil at the scene of the U.S. Embassy bombing in Nairobi, sources familiar with the probe told CNN.
However, the sources stressed that, so far, only preliminary testing of the traces has been done.
Assistant FBI Director Donald Kerr, head of the FBI lab, said the governments of Kenya and Tanzania had given the FBI permission to send evidence to the U.S. for examination. The first evidence would be flown there this weekend, Kerr said.
Kerr confirmed that portions of a truck believed used in the Nairobi bombing have been recovered, but said there were not yet any plans to send the pieces to the U.S. for examination.
"We're going to start with the small things first. We need to look at the explosives residue," Kerr said.
FBI explosives expert Tom Jourdan predicted it would take only "two or three" days to test each sample once they arrived in the U.S.
Africa bombs may be similar in composition to Oklahoma City bomb
The discovery of the suspected traces of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil suggests that the bomb, which killed 247 people, may have used the same ingredients as the bomb that destroy Oklahoma City's Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in 1995.
Ammonium nitrate is a widely available agriculture fertilizer.
Fuel oil can be mixed with ammonium nitrate to make a bomb, as prosecutors said Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols did in the Oklahoma City attack. Their bomb, which used an estimated two tons of ammonium nitrate, would have likely been much bigger than the device used in Nairobi.
Only one microscopic crystal of ammonium nitrate was found by the FBI during the Oklahoma City investigation, but that evidence played a key role in the government's case against McVeigh and Nichols.
No suspects in custody, despite detainees
A senior FBI official said Thursday that although five people have been detained for "suspicious activities," no suspects are in custody in Kenya or Tanzania.
No one has claimed responsibility for the nearly simultaneous blasts on August 7.
In a news briefing at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., FBI Assistant Director Thomas Pickard said, "We don't have any plans right now to charge anyone."
Pickard, who is supervising the probe from Washington, said the FBI expects evidence-gathering, on-site analysis and witness interviews to be completed in four weeks. The agency plans to conduct hundreds of interviews in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.
Some 215 American personnel have arrived at the blast sites to help with the investigation, including FBI agents, lab examiners, evidence technicians, photographers and translators.
Kerr said he was pleased with the pace of the investigations, crediting the "superb" cooperation of Kenyan and Tanzanian authorities.
That was in sharp contrast to FBI complaints about Saudi Arabian officials during a similar joint investigation of the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing that killed 19 American servicemen at a U.S. military housing complex near Dhahran.
