Pentagon warns of Africa terror threat ~Tyr

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. intelligence agencies have uncovered information about a possible terrorist plot to attack the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, prompting the embassy to close, intelligence and diplomatic sources told CNN.

On Thursday, the Defense Intelligence Agency issued a "defense terrorism warning report" to government agencies and officials in the East Africa region, warning of a specific threat to U.S. interests in Kenya, intelligence sources said.

Two State Department officials confirmed Friday that the target was the new Nairobi embassy, built to replace a facility destroyed in a 1998 terrorist attack. The embassy was closed Friday and will probably remain closed through Tuesday, State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said.

Kenya and the Horn of Africa region have long been a center of al Qaeda terrorist activity. U.S. authorities blame al Qaeda for the August 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi. That attack, and an almost simultaneous bombing at the U.S. embassy in Tanzania killed 224 people.

"East Africa has been an area of terrorist threats and indeed terrorist attacks in the past," said State Department spokesman Philip Reeker. "Those threats are still out there."

In May, British Airways and Israel's El Al suspended flights into Kenya because of terrorist threats. Intelligence sources told CNN that Thursday's warning was not an extension of those earlier threats but was based on fresh information.

Last month, the State Department issued a travel warning urging Americans to defer all non-essential travel to Kenya. Non-essential U.S. personnel in the country were also urged to leave