The Marine stood behind a camouflaged sandbag bunker atop the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi and scanned the horizon with binoculars.
What he saw was a busy street that officials fear is full of targets for an attack by al-Qaida-linked militants because diplomatic missions are in the neighborhood.
More than 15 years after al-Qaida destroyed the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi with a massive truck bomb that killed more than 200 people, fear is rising that U.S. diplomatic personnel and property could again be targeted. Armed Marines are now stationed on the embassy's roof, one indication of recent security upgrades.
Intelligence has been circulating in the region the last two months that American interests are the next intended target for al-Shabab, an al-Qaida linked group in Somalia responsible for last year's attack on Nairobi's Westgate Mall, said a Kenyan police official who insisted on anonymity to talk about security matters.
The terror group has also shown interest in attacking the U.S. military base in Djibouti, just north of Somalia, and there were indications that the U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia was being considered as a target last year, said Matt Bryden, the former head of the United Nations Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea and a top expert on al-Shabab.
Ambassador Robert Godec last week told some 400 Americans at a town hall meeting: "We know that there's a threat, and we know it's serious." Diplomats have indicated that global terrorists affiliated with al-Qaida are moving in to the region.
