Kenya, Tanzania mark anniversary of embassy bombings

Kenya and Tanzania marked the 10th anniversary of simultaneous bombings at the countries' U.S. embassies that left more than 200 dead and thousands injured.

The Aug. 7, 1998, attack killed 229 people and wounded 5,000 others in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.

At a ceremony at the downtown Nairobi site of the former embassy, now a memorial garden, Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga remarked on the recent escape of the man suspected of masterminding the bombings.

Fazul Abdullah Mohammed has been on the run for years and apparently escaped a weekend police raid over the weekend on the Kenyan coast. A $5 million US bounty is on Mohammed's head.

"The stark revelations of the last few days have reminded us yet again that we have terrorists in our midst still planning awful deeds," Odinga said.

"We must therefore never relax our vigilance against these extremists," Odinga told about 400 people. "Let me assure Kenyans that this government will do everything possible to prevent us from ever again being attacked."

Day still fresh in survivors' memories

Survivors also gathered for a quiet ceremony at the replacement U.S. embassy opened in 2003.

George Mimba, one of hundreds of embassy staffers at work that day, remembered the pickup truck rigged as a bomb exploding outside the four-storey building.

Within minutes, another bomb shattered the U.S. mission in Tanzania's commecrial capital, Dar es Salaam.

"That day is still as fresh as today," Mimba said, recalling how his colleagues became buried under smouldering rubble.

Reinforces need to confront terrorists: Bush

Michael Ranneberger, the U.S. ambassador to Kenya, said the ceremonies honoured the victims by strengthening the countries' democracies to prevent future attacks.

"The best way that we can honour them is to look forward and to look at what we've achieved over the past 10 years," said Ranneberger.

U.S. President George W. Bush said in a statement that the anniversary "reinforces the need to confront the terrorists, to work with our allies to bring them to justice, and to prevent such attacks from happening again."

An American, a Jordanian, a Saudi Arabian and a Tanzanian were convicted in the United States for the 1998 bombings and are serving life sentences.

One of them, American Wadih El-Hage, a former associate of Osama Bin Laden, is appealing his conviction.