WASHINGTON, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- A missile tube found following last week's failed attack on an Israeli airliner may be from the same production line as those recovered outside a U.S. airbase in Saudi Arabia last spring, suggesting al Qaida may have been behind both events, U.S. officials said Monday.
At least two SA-7s were launched at the Arkia Airlines Boeing 757 last Thursday from the port city of Mombasa. Neither missile harmed the aircraft, which had 261 passengers.
On the same day, suicide bombers killed 16 in the Israeli-owned Paradise Hotel in the city.
The serial number on the Soviet-made missile launcher tube discovered near Mombasa airport was similar to a scorched SA-7 missile tube found about 1.86 miles from Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia in May. The sequence of the numbers suggests they may have been bought from the same source, and were almost certainly produced at the same facility.
The U.S. government is still investigating the origins of the missiles, the official said.
The missile found outside the U.S. airbase was "strongly linked" to al Qaida, a U.S. official told United Press International. The official refused to specify the evidence linking that launcher to al Qaida.
The Pentagon said no U.S. pilots reported sightings of surface-to-air missiles in Saudi Arabia around the time the missile tube was found.
However, the government of Sudan announced in June it had arrested a suspected al Qaida cell leader, Abu Huzifa, who had confessed to firing an SA-7 missile at an American military plane taking off from Prince Sultan in May. At the same time, Saudi Arabia announced it had arrested a dozen others connected to him.
The SA-7 was the first generation of Soviet-made man portable surface-to-air missiles and was introduced in 1972. Although self-guided with heat-seeking sensors, the missiles are easily overcome by ambient heat, and could be as much as 30 years old. The most-recent version can fire at targets between 15 meters and 2,300 meters (49.2 feet to 7,546 feet) in altitude, with a speed of about 500 meters per second.
It is similar in design to the U.S.-made Stinger missile, an extremely effective anti-helicopter weapon. It was widely proliferated in Afghanistan by the CIA in the late 1980s and was credited with helping to oust the Soviet army.
