Tanzanian police said yesterday they had arrested 14 foreign nationals in connection with the car-bomb attack on the US embassy in the capital Dar es Salaam.
"The reason for the arrests are their dubious characters and intelligence information suggests that they may be involved in the explosion," the assistant police commissioner, Mr Aden Mwamunyange, told a news conference.
The suspects were six Iraqis, six Sudanese, a Somali national and a Turk, he said.
"All the above mentioned people failed to produce their passports," he said. "They were unable to explain satisfactorily their presence in the country."
Ten people were killed and about 75 injured in the bombing of the embassy last Friday.
Mr Mwamunyange said the 14 were arrested in Dar es Salaam at different times but it was unclear whether they knew each other. He said none had formally been charged with any crime.
He did not name any of the suspects but said all claimed to have legitimate reasons for being in Tanzania. They were being interrogated jointly with the FBI.
The Sudanese suspects included one person who claimed to work for the Saudi Arabian embassy in Dar es Salaam and five others who said they were visitors, he said. One claimed to be just 15 years old.
The Iraqis included a civil servant, an engineer, a teacher, a telecommunications technician and an agricultural engineer.
Mr Mwamunyange said the Somali suspect claimed to be working for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. A UNHCR spokesperson later said that they employed a person matching the Somali's description. No details were given of the Turkish national.
The toll from the embassy bombing in Nairobi has risen to 234, with hope fading of finding any more survivors. Nearly 5,000 were injured in this attack, and 224 were still in hospital yesterday evening. There have been no arrests announced so far in the Kenyan investigation.
Meanwhile, the spiritual leader of the radical Islamic group, Hamas, said he does not know who was behind the bombing of two US embassies but that whoever was responsible acted in "self-defence".
"America has placed itself by the side of Israel against the Arab and Muslim world," Sheik Ahmed Yassin (62) said in an interview. "So it should be no surprise when people seek revenge against this unjust American policy."
Asked about the bombings, the sheik said he rejected attacks on civilians but continued: "I consider what happened self-defence by someone who was seeking revenge for the injustice of American policy and the destruction it has brought on their country."
He explicitly denied any Hamas involvement in the attacks. There has been no claim of responsibility for the attacks, but Israeli and US officials have said they were looking into possible involvement by the exiled Islamic militant and Saudi financier, Mr Osama bin Laden.
A southern Sudanese rebel leader claimed yesterday that Sudan's Islamist government may have had a hand in the attacks on the embassies.
Mr John Garang, leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Army, suggested a link between the National Islamic Front (NIF) rulers in Khartoum and Friday's bombing. "Although investigations are still going on, one can say that the NIF is geographically and ideologically close to the problem," he said. The Khartoum government has condemned the attacks and denied accusations that it sponsors international terrorism.