The first two people to be held for questioning over attacks on Israelis in Kenya checked into a hotel using US passports, the manager of the Kenyan hotel where they stayed said today.
"They had American passports and they said they were from Florida," Mr Ben Wafula, general manager of Le Soleil Beach Club, said in Mombasa.
He said the man and the woman, who looked in their twenties, checked in on November 26th and were trying to check out of the hotel on Thursday morning about two hours after the suicide bombing of the Paradise Hotel, which is about five kilometres away.
Mr Wafula said they were held after staff at the hotel made a routine call to police. The staff were acting in line with a police request to all hotels in the area to notify them of any checkouts following the blast, he said.
Meanwhile US authorities have said the suicide bombers may have used US passports to enter Kenya.
"We do have indications through our own channels that they used US passports, but it is not a 100 per cent confirmed," a spokesman said.
He would not comment when asked if investigators were trying to identify three individuals who may have used US passports to book into a hotel in the Mombasa area and did not return later.
A third suspect was arrested over the bombing near the coastal city of Mombasa that killed at least 18 people dead, police said today.
"The three, all foreigners of Arab origin, are being held for questioning over terrorist links," a spokesman said.