OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, December 3 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israeli intelligence came under fire again Tuesday, December 3, as it emerged that the Mossad knew of terror attacks being planned by Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network in the Kenyan city of Mombasa, a few days before Israeli tourists were targeted.

The head of the rival military intelligence services told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that Mossad had “received advance information on planned Al-Qaeda attacks in Africa and notably Mombasa in Kenya.”

General Yossi Kuperwasser was answering Labor party secretary general Ofer Pines, who was questioning Mossad’s competence for the second time this week, following his condemnation Sunday, December 1, of the spy agency’s “failure” to warn its citizens of a terrorist threat. Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

According to Israeli newspaper, Ha’artez, Germany and Australia had put out advisories in mid-November warning their citizens against visiting Mombasa, based on intelligence they had that terror groups were planning attacks on Western targets in the Kenyan port city.

Three Israelis were among the 13 victims of last Thursday’s car-bomb attack on a hotel in the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa.

Minutes later, a tourist-packed Israeli charter flying 261 passengers back from Mombasa to Tel Aviv was targeted by two missiles which could have caused the deadliest anti-Israeli attack in recent history but missed their target.

Kupperwasser stressed that the information received gave no indication as to when Osama bin Laden’s network would strike nor did it specify that Israelis would be targeted, but his remarks were the first admission of shortcomings on the part of the Israeli intelligence services.

The accusations were likely to pile further pressure on Mossad agents currently investigating the twin attacks.

On Monday Israel questioned Kenya’s ability to lead an efficient enquiry.

“We welcome the cooperation of Kenya, which has let us investigate on site, but we believe this country does not have the technological means nor the experts to successfully complete this mission,” Sharon spokesman Raanan Gissin told AFP.

Meanwhile, in Kenya, a newspaper reported Tuesday that Kenya’s security agencies were warned four times of a plot to bomb Western targets eight months before last week’s anti-Israeli attack on the Kenyan coast.

A police spokesman in Nairobi, King’ori Mwangi, told AFP that he had no immediate comment on the front-page story in the Daily Nation, Kenya’s largest newspaper, which cited well-placed sources.

The security agencies “were even given the names and pictures of two Iraqi terrorists who planned to enter Kenya from Somalia to carry out the attack” against Western interests, said the daily.

Kenyans investigating last Thursday’s bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel and a failed missile attack on an Israeli passenger plane, both in the Mombasa area, have not raised a possible Iraqi connection.

The newspaper alleged the first warning was sent to Police Commissioner Philemon Abong’o on March 11 and talked of reports that terrorist attacks on Western interests in Kenya were planned.

The daily quoted Abong’o as saying that: “We have a close and warm relationship with out our intelligence counterparts. We receive several intelligence reports from them daily.”