EMBASSY RESCUERS DIG FOR SURVIVORS; 82 DEAD.

Byline: Karin Davies Associated Press 

Spurred by cries for help, rescue workers used backhoes and bare hands Saturday to free people trapped under mangled steel and concrete shattered by two terrorist bombings at U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The death toll rose to 82 before dawn.

``Help me, help me. I have gone now,'' gasped the latest victim, a Kenyan man buried in rubble, just before he died.

Just a few minutes apart, the suspected car bombings 450 miles from each other Friday turned busy streets in two African capitals into bloody piles of concrete and knots of steel.

The number of injured topped 1,700. At least eight Americans died in Kenya, U.S. Embassy spokesman Chris Scharf said. The State Department said a child was among those killed and five other Americans were missing.

More than two dozen FBI agents and bomb examiners boarded U.S. military flights for Africa within hours of the bombings to investigate.

``Our top priority at the scene is to determine the kind of explosive device that was used and the kind of vehicle that carried it there,'' FBI spokesman Frank Scafidi said in Washington. ``Knowing the kind of explosive and vehicle can be like a fingerprint of who did it.''

No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

``This appears to have been a very well-coordinated, very well-planned attack - clearly not the work of amateurs,'' National Security Council spokesman P.J. Crowley said in Washington.

As dawn broke in Nairobi Saturday, rescuers could hear at least three people calling out from inside a debris-choked elevator shaft, plus a fourth person trapped nearby.

``It is horrific to hear moaning, sighs and whimpers from under the rubble when we can do so little to reach victims quickly,'' Red Cross spokeswoman Nina Galbe said.

The blast in Nairobi sent a crowded building toppling toward the embassy and a street packed with cars, trucks and buses. At least 75 people were killed and 1,643 wounded there, Red Cross and ambulance officials said.

More dead were expected to be found as debris is cleared.

Almost simultaneously, the U.S. Embassy in the Tanzanian capital, Dar es Salaam, was shattered by an explosion in an adjacent parking lot. At least seven people were killed and 72 hurt, officials said. It was not clear which bombing occurred first.

No Americans were believed killed in Dar es Salaam.

Car bombs were believed to have caused both blasts, Kenyan and Tanzanian officials said.

Working through the night beneath floodlights, rescuers in both capitals used pick axes, shovels and ropes to clear rubble.

After an hourlong effort in Nairobi, one person was pulled alive from the wreckage to cheers from the gathered crowd.

But another rescue attempt ended tragically.

Kenyan Sgt. David Kambi, an army engineer, said he struggled for four hours to free a 40-year-old man named Gitau whose chest was weighed down by a slab of concrete.

``I told him, `Gitau we're going to help you,' '' Kambi said. He pleaded for help twice, then died, the officer said.

In Washington, President Clinton said the United States would bring the terrorists to justice ``no matter what or how long it takes.''

The United States rushed medical supplies and investigators to both countries as governments throughout the world condemned the bombings and offered help.

The bombings were the first major international terror attacks against the United States since a June 25, 1996, truck bomb outside a housing complex in Saudi Arabia killed 19 Americans. More than 500 people were injured.

Friday's blast in Kenya damaged at least 53 buildings, severed phone and power lines, shattered windows as far as 10 blocks away, and sent black smoke into the sky. Several people aboard two passing buses were killed by shrapnel, witnesses said. Bloodied clothing and papers lay scattered around.

Bodies dangled out of windows in a charred bus as crumpled cars smoldered nearby. Police helicopters hovered, some evacuating the seriously injured.

In Dar es Salaam, cranes gingerly peeled away layers of wreckage searching for survivors.

Officials in the United States, Kenya and Tanzania refused to speculate on who was responsible.

The Islamic Jihad vowed last week to strike American interests because some of its members were arrested in Albania, according to a report Thursday in Al-Hayat, a daily Arabic language newspaper published in London.

Several groups use the name Islamic Jihad. This one is considered the successor to groups that assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981.

One suspected terrorist being examined in the wake of the explosions is exiled Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, U.S. officials said. Bin Laden has threatened a holy war against U.S. troops and Americans.

He also is suspected of backing other terrorist acts including the 1996 attack in Saudi Arabia.

A man was seen being taken into custody at the Nairobi bombing scene. Witnesses said he spoke Arabic, but police would not comment. His connection, if any, to the bombings was not known.

Security was tightened at other U.S. embassies worldwide.

The U.S. ambassador to Kenya, Prudence Bushnell, was cut on the lip. The newly confirmed ambassador to Tanzania, Charles Stith, had not yet arrived in the country.

Neither country has a history of international terrorist attacks. Both embassies were considered low risk, perhaps making them attractive targets.

Compared with other African countries, foreigners can enter and leave Kenya and Tanzania with relative ease, possibly making it easier for terrorists to attack.

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Photo

PHOTO American soldiers add support to a collapsed section of the Cooperative Bank House in Nairobi.

Sayyid Azim/Associated Press