More U.S. Marines fortify Nairobi embassy security

U.S. troops led the investigation of the site of a suicide car bombing and a gunfight near the U.S. consulate in Herat, Afghanistan, on Friday, September 13. Taliban militants attacked the consulate using a car bomb and guns to battle security forces just outside the compound. An intercepted al Qaeda message led to the closing of 22 embassies and consulates across the Middle East and North Africa on August 4. Take a look at other attacks on U.S. diplomatic sites in recent years.

A suicide bomb goes off at the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, on February 1. A security guard was killed and a journalist was wounded in the attack. The Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, or DHKP-C, took responsibility for the bombing.

Demonstrators set the U.S. Consulate compound in Benghazi, Libya, on fire on September 11, 2012. The U.S. ambassador and three other U.S. nationals were killed during the attack.

People flee the scene of a Taliban attack on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, on September 13, 2011. Three police officers and one civilian were killed. There were no reports of U.S. casualties.

Officials examine the aftermath of a terrorist attack outside the U.S. Consulate in Peshawar, Pakistan, on April 5, 2010. The coordinated attack involved a vehicle suicide bomb and attackers who tried to enter the consulate by using grenades and weapons fire. Two consulate security guards and at least six others were killed.

Yemeni soldiers carry the coffin of a comrade during a funeral on September 25, 2008, in Sanaa. Heavily armed fighters attacked the U.S. Embassy in Yemen on September 17. A car bomb was detonated, killing 10 Yemeni police and civilians and six attackers.

Relatives of slain police officers are comforted during a funeral in Istanbul, Turkey, on July 10, 2008, a day after the U.S. Consulate there was attacked. Three police officers and three attackers were killed in what the American ambassador to the country called "an obvious act of terrorism" aimed at the U.S.

A bomb squad team collects evidence at a construction site where a rocket was launched near the U.S. Embassy in Athens, Greece, on January 12, 2007. The anti-tank missile tore through the embassy, but there were no injuries.

A car exploded near the U.S. Embassy in Damascus, Syria, on September 12, 2006. Fourteen people were wounded. Syrian authorities killed three attackers and apprehended a suspect outside the building.

A U.S. diplomat and his driver were among at least four people killed on March 2, 2006, in an apparent suicide attack outside the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan.

An attack on the U.S. Consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, killed nine people on December 7, 2004. A Saudi group linked to al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack.

A Pakistani police officer stands guard outside the U.S. Consulate in Karachi after a gunman opened fire there on February 28, 2003. Two police officers were killed, and six others, including one civilian, were injured.

Family members of a victim who was killed by a bomb a day earlier embrace at a hospital in Denpasar, Bali, on October 14, 2002. A series of bombs killed more than 200 people at nightclubs while another attack occurred near the U.S. Consulate on the Indonesian tourist island. Authorities believe the attacks were coordinated.

A previously unknown militant group called Al-Qanoon claimed responsibility for a bombing that killed 10 people at the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, on June 14, 2002. The U.S. State Department says it suspects al Qaeda is responsible.

Police officers stand next to the body of a victim after a car bomb exploded on March 20, 2002, at a shopping center near the U.S. Embassy in Lima, Peru, killing nine people.

Christopher Sandrolini, the U.S. consul general in Calcutta, speaks with Indian officials outside the U.S. government information center in Calcutta, near the U.S. Consulate, where heavily armed gunmen killed five Indian police officers on January 22, 2002.

Rescue workers stand on the remains of a building in front of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, on August 10, 1998, four days after a deadly attack. Twelve Americans were among more than 200 people killed in nearly simultaneous bombings at U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, center, walks past the damaged U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam on August 18, 1998. The August 7 attacks in Tanzania and Kenya were later attributed to al Qaeda.

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Photos: Attacks on U.S. diplomatic sites

Attacks on U.S. diplomatic sites

Attacks on U.S. diplomatic sites

Attacks on U.S. diplomatic sites

Attacks on U.S. diplomatic sites

Attacks on U.S. diplomatic sites

Attacks on U.S. diplomatic sites

Attacks on U.S. diplomatic sites

Attacks on U.S. diplomatic sites

Attacks on U.S. diplomatic sites

Attacks on U.S. diplomatic sites

Attacks on U.S. diplomatic sites

Attacks on U.S. diplomatic sites

Attacks on U.S. diplomatic sites

Attacks on U.S. diplomatic sites

Attacks on U.S. diplomatic sites

Attacks on U.S. diplomatic sites

Attacks on U.S. diplomatic sites

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Washington (CNN) -- More U.S. Marines are fortifying security at the American Embassy in Nairobi following the deadly shopping mall attack there, CNN has learned.

Two U.S. officials confirmed the move in Kenya, but declined to be identified because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

The newly arrived Marines are part of a unit specially trained in enhanced security, including providing personal protection to senior American officials.

That kind of assistance was recently added to tasks performed by the embassy guard program after the deadly terror attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, last year.

Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed in the armed assault that, in part, focused attention on State Department security readiness and military response.

The security step also follows a State Department travel advisory on Wednesday about potential terror threats in East Africa from al Qaeda and affiliated groups following the Westgate Mall attack and standoff that killed 67 people.

Due to security concerns, the officials would not discuss the precise number of Marines added to the embassy since the shopping mall attack.

While there is no specific threat against the embassy at this time, the Obama administration deemed it a "high threat" facility, the officials said.

The United States has doubled the number of Marine guards at the Nairobi embassy in the past eight weeks.

The force was first increased during a heightened state of alert during which the United States close nearly two dozen embassies worldwide due to a threat from al Qaeda in Yemen. Security was beefed up again prior to the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

Separately on Thursday, Attorney General Eric Holder said there was no evidence so far to indicate that any Americans were involved in the Nairobi attack.

Citing a U.S. official with direct knowledge of the situation and the latest security assessment, CNN reported on Wednesday that authorities want to know if any Americans were among the attackers as claimed by the Somali-based al-Shabaab terror group said to be behind it.

Was 'White Widow' involved in mall attack?

Kenyan authorities have said the attackers were from a number of countries, but have not confirmed that any Americans were involved.

"We don't have verifiable information that would indicate one way or the other way whether any Americans were involved," Holder said. "That is one of the things that we are trying to do with our Kenyan colleagues - go through the forensic things, materials that we have, physical things to make that kind of determination."

United States knows so far that the attack that began on Saturday was carefully planned.

FBI experts are assisting the Kenyans on a preliminary basis. They have specific expertise in analyzing explosives and fingerprints.

"FBI agents have been on the ground since right after the incident began. We have been flowing resources into Nairobi on a continuing basis. We have had conversations about this matter both here and at the White House," Holder said.

American forensic investigators were granted access to mall alongside Kenyan officials on Thursday, CNN's Evan Perez reported.

But U.S. law enforcement officials told Perez that there is an increasing concern that some of the perpetrators escaped alongside fleeing victims, making the effort to piece together who was responsible more difficult.

The updated State Department travel caution on security threats and terror activities worldwide included the Kenya attack, saying al-Shabaab had "taken credit" for it.

"Al-Shabaab assassinations, suicide bombings, hostage taking, and indiscriminate attacks in civilian-populated areas are also frequent in Somalia," the advisory said.

Holder added that there was no "specific, credible evidence" that al-Shabaab is planning anything domestically.

"I am not sure they have the capacity to do anything in the United States," he said, adding that the United States is taking the "threat that they pose" seriously.

A U.S. official with access to the latest intelligence told CNN the State Department advisory was issued out of an "abundance of caution."

But officials are concerned there could be other plots in the works.

Source: Kenya mall attack suspect eyed after ammunition fell out of his pocket