NAIROBI, Kenya — The armed U.S. Marine stood behind sandbags atop the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi and looked through binoculars. What he saw was a busy street lined by a few diplomatic missions that officials fear could be targeted by Islamic militants.
Fifteen years after al-Qaida destroyed the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi with a truck bomb that killed more than 200 people, fear is rising that the U.S. could again be targeted.
Intelligence has been circulating recently that American interests are the next intended target for al-Shabab, an al-Qaida linked group in Somali, said a Kenyan police official who insisted on anonymity to talk about security matters.
U.S. Ambassador Robert Godec last week told a town hall meeting: "We know that there's a threat, and we know it's serious."