The blinded, the maimed and the bereaved gathered Saturday on a site in downtown Nairobi, capital of Kenya, where a terrorist bomb tore through the United States embassy and an adjacent office building six years ago, killing more than 200 people and wounding more than 5,000.

Under leaden skies, survivors clutching faded photographs of their dead beloved ones and men leaning on crutches struggled to make sense of how a normal workday morning became a nightmare that forever changed their lives.

It was August 7, 1998, also a Saturday. A yellow van carrying five men, allegedly Islamic militants, drove to the underground garage's entrance of the embassy, which is located in central Nairobi and the surrounding streets and office buildings were crowded with people then, and set off a bomb that shattered the embassy, demolishing the nearby Ufundi Coop House and gutted the 17-story Cooperative Bank.

More than ten people have been charged by US federal prosecutors in New York in the nearly simultaneous attacks on the US embassies in Nairobi and neighboring Tanzania's Dar es Salaam. Nine suspects are still at large, including Saudi terror mastermind Osama bin Laden, accused of ordering the attacks. Kenyais now trying three men for allegedly plotting the attack. Eleven people died in the Dar es Salaam explosion.

12 of the 224 who were killed in the Nairobi bombing were Americans. The tumbling concrete and shattering glass wounded over5,000. Hundreds were disfigured and blinded, leaving them unable to work and stretching already meager family incomes.

But six years after the twin embassy bombings, the east African victims of the attacks are unlikely to receive any compensation from the US government.

A new ultra modern US Embassy has been built on the northern edge of Nairobi. The US ambassador to Kenya, William Bellamy, laid a wreath at the former embassy site, which is now a memorial garden, to mark the attack's anniversary.

Kenyan bomb blast survivors who gathered for the anniversary petitioned the Kenyan government to compensate the victims.

"We would like to appeal to the government to immediately and without conditions, on humanitarian grounds, to come to aid of the victims," group chairman, Paul Walla told hundreds of victims who attended the ceremony.

The survivors also remember vividly the twin attacks on an Israeli-owned beach resort and an Israeli charter jetliner in Kenyan coastal city of Mombassa in 2002, also leaving Kenyans shocked and wondering why their country should be the target of two deadly terrorist attacks in four years.

The attack in Mombassa on the Paradise Hotel, which killed at least 15 people including the three suicide bombers, and the firing of two missiles at the airliner rekindled memories of the 1998 embassy bombing.

"With porous borders and the busiest international airport in the region, large numbers of foreigners move freely in and out of the country," the victim who sought anonymity told Xinhua. Kenya's neighbors are among some of Africa's most unstable countries - Somalia, Sudan and Ethiopia. All are awash in weapons.

After the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, the US government identified the east African region as a possible terrorist haven and set up a joint command task force for the area in Djibouti, where some 800 US troops, including Special Forces, are stationed.

Kenya is considered a key regional ally in the United States' war against terrorism, and US Marines are involved in an annual exercise on the Kenyan coastal region. They, too, are seen by some people as making the country a target.

Khelef Khalifa, director of Muslims for Human Rights, said Kenya's association with the United States and its links to Israel could make it a tempting target.

Unlike Israel and the United States - themselves already targets of terrorism - Kenya seems an unlikely target for terrorists. The east African country plays no important role in Middle East politics. There is also no history of religiously motivated violence in its diverse population.

Kenya is a relatively stable country in a region of instability with a population of 30 million, between 10 and 20 percent of whom are Muslims. Most of Kenya's Muslims live along the coast where the 2002 attacks occurred.

However, despite all these, Kenyan government officials say the east African nation has taken a number of important steps to deal with terrorism threats.

Kenyan Minister for National Security Chris Murungaru said recently that Kenya established a special counter-terrorism police unit early last year and a special security unit to provide protection for installations and individuals thought to be susceptible to terrorism, such as tourists, and western embassies.

Source: Xinhua