Iranians 'were targeting British High Commission in Kenya'

"They were driving around Nairobi, they went past the British High Commission, they went past the [Nairobi Hebrew Congregation] synagogue in town, they went to the Israeli embassy.

"It is very clear that they were casing these places, that they were up to no good. From what we saw, their intention was clear to plan and execute terrorism attacks."

Like most diplomatic missions in Nairobi, Britain's High Commission is heavily secured with high walls, electrified fences, guards patrolling 24 hours and extensive CCTV cameras.

It is understood that the Iranian team focused their survey on a forested road that passes along the complex's eastern perimeter, close to a city centre golf course.

There were no ongoing investigations into the specific reports cited by local police, a spokesman for the High Commission said.

Following al-Qaeda bombings at the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, the nearby Israeli embassy became one of East Africa's best-protected foreign missions.

"That would have been a very ambitious target for a terror attack," one Nairobi-based security analyst said. "But the fact that they were looking there illustrates that they were not aiming low."

Investigators believe that the men planned to attack Western interests in Kenya because of the country involvement in neighbouring Somalia.

Any major bomb attacks would likely immediately be blamed on al-Shabaab rather than Iran, which is not known to have carried out significant direct or proxy strikes against the West, or Israel, in East Africa.

But had the attacks been successful, they would have matched an emerging pattern of Iranian actions against Israel taking place across the globe.

Last October, the US justice ministry said it had uncovered an Iranian conspiracy to use members of a Mexican drug cartel to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Washington.

Other plots believed to have been planned by Iranian agents include bomb strikes in Thailand, an attack against the wife of an Israeli diplomat in India, and the targeting of Israeli teachers at a Jewish school in Azerbaijan.

Analysts believe each mission was to be carried out by al-Quds agents and were part of a retaliation programme against Israel following the deaths in recent years of five Iranian scientists with links to Tehran's nuclear programme.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, was yesterday quoted directly accusing the Iranian government of giving orders to the two men arrested in Kenya, a charge that Iran has denied.

"Iranian terrorism knows no borders," said Mr Netanyahu. "The international community must fight against this major player in the world of terrorism."

Security sources said that Israeli-owned hotels and businesses in Mombasa and along the coast to the city's north and south, popular with British tourists, could also have been targets.

A vehicle hired by one of the men was used to carry the explosives from the port to a hiding place close to a golf course in Mombasa, police said.

"There was enough there for many different smaller explosions," the officer said. "We were told that they planned 30 different targets." Prosecutors said in their charge sheet that the two had explosives "in circumstances that indicated they were armed with the intent to commit a felony, namely, acts intended to cause grievous harm".