Acts of war. “Kenya plot: Fears Iran widening covert war,” from UPI, June 28 (thanks to David):
NAIROBI, Kenya, June 28 (UPI) — The recent arrest of two Iranians in Kenya on suspicion of plotting bomb attacks has heightened fears that Tehran is widening its covert war against Israel and the United States as Washington expands its secret intelligence operations across Africa.
The Iranians have rarely mounted major covert or intelligence operations in Africa, although they have used Sudan as a key conduit for weapons destined for the Palestinian Hamas militants and their allies in the Gaza Strip in recent years.
But West Africa and the Horn of Africa have largely been operational areas for al-Qaida, a Sunni organization that’s religiously and ideologically opposed to Shiite Iran, and its Somali offshoot, al-Shabaab.
Kenya security authorities, aided by U.S. and British agents, arrested the two Iranians June 20 in Nairobi, the West African country’s capital. The men reportedly led authorities to a cache of 33 pounds of military-grade explosive, believed to be RDX.
They were charged Monday with intent to carry out bombings, which they deny. But the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi issued a warning Tuesday to Americans to avoid traveling to Kenya.
The arrest of the Iranians suggests that “the suspects may have been preparing to deliver the next blow in the covert intelligence war that has raged since 2007 between the United States, Israel and their allies on one side and Iran and its allies on the other,” the U.S. global security consultancy Stratfor observed….