The United States embassy in Kenya warned its citizens of looming terrorist attacks in the country’s capital, Nairobi, the embassy’s spokesperson said on Tuesday.
The US State Department received an anonymous warning about an attack in the next few days, the spokesperson said. He could not elaborate on the details of the threat.
Kenyan authorities have tightened security around the city and police deployed paramilitary units to two bank buildings in Nairobi, at least one of them British-owned, to evacuate people and search for explosives. Two major Nairobi hotels were also searched.
The city’s shopping malls and restaurants have stepped up security, with guards checking under cars and in car trunks for weapons and explosives.
The State Department renewed its travel advisory for Kenya in September, fearing more attacks, but the warning was scaled down for embassy personnel.
There have been two major terrorist attacks in Kenya in the past five years.
A year ago, suicide bombers destroyed an Israeli-owned hotel in the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa. The bombing, which killed 12 Kenyans and three Israelis, coincided with a failed missile attack to down an Israeli charter jet carrying 261 passengers that had just taken off from Mombasa’s airport.
In 1998, a car bomb exploded outside the US embassy in Nairobi, killing 219 people, mostly Kenyans.
Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terror network claimed responsibility for both deadly attacks. — Sapa-DPA