Kenyan police backed by Israeli security experts hunted on Friday for men of Arab appearance who fired missiles at an Israeli plane minutes before suicide bombers killed 12 people at a hotel nearby. Police were also questioning two men detained as they tried to check out of a Mombasa hotel. Israeli and Kenyan officials blamed the al Qaeda network for the missile attack and the blast at the Israeli-owned hotel on Thursday, which was condemned by President Bush as a "horrible crime."

In a fax sent to Reuters by a Lebanese media organization, the previously unheard-of "Army of Palestine" claimed responsibility.

In Jerusalem, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed that Israel would hunt down those behind the attacks.

Washington said it was too early to point the finger at the al Qaeda group.

Police said three suicide bombers also died when they drove a four-wheeled-drive jeep carrying explosives at speed into the lobby of the Mombasa Paradise hotel in the coastal resort.

Kenyan police said three Israeli hotel guests and nine Kenyans were believed to have died in the blast.

PLANE PASSENGERS NARROWLY ESCAPE DEATH

Provincial medical officer Shahnaz Sharif told a reporter there were possibly 16 dead, including the three bombers.

Minutes before the explosion which reduced part of the hotel to rubble, 261 passengers narrowly escaped death when two missiles were fired at their Israeli Arkia Boeing 757-300 as it took off from Mombasa's airport.

The missiles missed their target and the plane later landed safely in Israel escorted by Israeli military jets.

Police and security sources said the missiles were fired from a white Pajero jeep, possibly from shoulder-held launchers, by attackers suspected of being of Arab origin.

German intelligence sources described the weapons as Soviet-produced SAM-7 ground-to-air missiles.

"The search for the white Pajero and three occupants of Arab origin is on," Kenya police commissioner Philemon Abong'o told reporters.

The hotel attackers were also described as of Arab appearance and driving a four-wheeled-drive Pajero.

On arriving at Tel Aviv's international airport, pilot Rafi Marek told reporters he had felt a jolt after takeoff but thought a bird had struck the aircraft.

He had been told later by ground authorities that a pair of heat-seeking missiles nearly hit his plane.

Local government officials said at least 60 other people were injured in the hotel blast, some seriously.

MEMORIES OF PREVIOUS ATTACKS

The attacks revived memories of the bloody 1998 truck bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania which killed 224 people, blamed by Washington on al Qaeda. They also underscored what some analysts said is a breeding ground for guerrillas in East Africa created by poverty and lax security.

The latest bombing also followed the October 12 attack in Bali, Indonesia's premier tourist resort, in which at least 185 people -- mostly foreigners -- died. Indonesian officials have linked the attack to Muslim extremists.

Governments around the world condemned the attacks, but none immediately put the blame directly on fugitive Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda group.

PHOTO CAPTION

(TOP) An Arabic statement faxed to international press agencies in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday Nov. 28, 2002, by a previously unknown militant group, which claimed responsibility for Thursday's attacks in Kenya that killed 11 people. The group described itself as The Government of Universal Palestine in Exile, The Army of Palestine. (AP Photo)

(BOTTOM) Uniformed and plain clothes Kenyan police officers and investigators at the Paradise Hotel in Kikambala, Kenya after an anti-Israeli attack Thursday, Nov. 28, 2002. (AP Photo/Charles Ochieng