On Thursday, Sheila Horan, the FBI agent in charge of the investigation, said investigators had gathered ''very critical and important information'' on the bombers' identities. The FBI has 215 agents, lab examiners, evidence technicians, computer specialists, photographers and translators in Kenya and Tanzania. A British forensic team was expected to join the 22 FBI lab examiners at the two sites shortly. Pickard said agents had 700 interviews to conduct in Nairobi and 200 in Dar es Salaam. Some of the Kenyan guards at the embassy who may have seen the bombers survived the blast.
Kenyan police say about five people have been detained.
In Tanzania, about 14 people have been picked up for questioning. Kenya's Muslims feel they have been unfairly targeted because of suspicions that Islamic terrorists are involved in the blast. It seems they've decided that the people who did it are Muslims, now let's go for the evidence,'' Mohamed Farouk Adam, vice chairman of Nairobi's Jamia Mosque. U.S. officials have said exiled Saudi financier Osama bin Laden, among the world's most militant sponsors of terrorism, was a possible suspect. However, the leader of Afghanistan's Taliban militia was quoted Friday as denying any tie between bin Laden and the bombings.