* Suspect among the wounded, being held at hospital
* Two Iranians charged with possessing explosives
* Mombasa has been hit by a series of blasts
By Joseph Akwiri
MOMBASA, Kenya, June 25 (Reuters) - The death toll from Sunday's explosion
in a Mombasa night club rose to three and Kenyan police said on Monday they
had arrested a suspect, a man in his twenties who was injured in the blast
and taken to hospital.
The cause of the explosion was not yet known, police said, but there have
been several attacks in the east African port city, popular with Kenyan and
foreign holidaymakers, since Kenya sent troops into Somalia in October to
crush Islamist militants.
A day before the blast the U.S. embassy warned of an imminent attack on
Mombasa and urged all its staff to leave. It also said it had suspended
travel to the city by embassy staff until July 1.
The suspect now under arrest was taken to hospital after suffering abdominal
and leg injuries in the blast, but early on Monday police handcuffed him to
his hospital bed and said they needed to question him further.
"One of those wounded people is assisting us with investigations because he
is providing contradictory statements. He is being held as a suspect," said
Aggrey Adoli, the Coast regional police chief.
At least 15 people have been killed in grenade attacks in Nairobi and
Mombasa, including a security guard at a Mombasa night club. There have also
been grenade and gun attacks in northeast Kenya near the Somali border.
Kenya has blamed the attacks on al Shabaab, a Somali rebel group which
formally merged with al Qaeda this year and has declared war on Kenya
because of its incursion into Somalia.
On Wednesday Kenyan police arrested two Iranians after seizing chemicals
they suspected were going to be used to make explosives in Mombasa.
Ahmad Mohammed and Sayed Mousavi were charged at the Nairobi High Court on
Monday with being in possession of 15 kgs of explosives and preparing to
commit a felony. They denied the charges and were detained until Wednesday,
when the judge will rule on their bail application.
One man was killed immediately in Sunday's blast, and two of the eight
people injured died later in hospital - a nine-year-old boy with shrapnel in
his chest and thigh, and a man.
A crowd had gathered at the night club, situated in a residential area, to
watch the Euro 2012 football quarter-final between England and Italy.
TOURISM IMPACT
Tourism organisations criticised the warning by the U.S. embassy, echoing
the Kenyan government which said on Sunday it considered the warning an act
of "economic sabotage" and urged the embassy to reverse it.
Tourism, one of Kenya's major foreign earners alongside tea and
horticulture, earned a record 98 billion shillings ($1.19 billion) in 2011,
when visitors from Britain and the United States topped the tourist numbers.
There are signs that tourism revenue could drop this year as the euro zone
crisis hits confidence in key markets and foreign governments issue travel
alerts over the threat from Somali militants, the government and tour
operators have said.
"The latest blast has created even more fear, but still the American
embassy, knowing too well how delicate this industry is, should have sought
consultations before issuing such an advisory," said Mohammed Hersi,
chairman of the umbrella group, the Mombasa and Coast Tourist Association.
"This is a very small country with a small economy. When you give out such
an alert in a very sensational manner, it does nothing but hurt the
country's economy." (Additional reporting by Humphrey Malalo; Editing by
James Macharia and Tim Pearce)
