US Embassy Nairobi Terror Attack? Al-Shabab Suspected As Man With Knife Killed Trying To Stab Officer

A man wielding a knife in an apparent attack on the United States embassy in Nairobi, Kenya was reportedly shot and killed after he tried to stab a guard near one of the entrances Thursday, NTV Kenya reports.

The man’s identity was not immediately known, but bystanders posted pictures of his body to social media after he was killed.

The motive was also not immediately known, but the embassy confirmed the attack on Twitter and said no personnel was hurt.

Embassy employees took cover during the shooting, according to a report from the New York Times. The suspect was reportedly born in Wajir, Kenya in 1992.

The suspect tried to stab an officer in the General Service Unit, which is part of Kenya’s National Police Service. He grabbed an officer near the visa section of the embassy and after a confrontation removed a dagger from his pants and stabbed the officer in the head and chest, the Star, Kenya reports.

No other reports alleging the officer was injured have surfaced.

The man is a suspected Al-Shabab militant who is originally from neighboring Somalia, according to Kenyans.co.ke. That report was not immediately confirmed.

Al-Shabab, originally formed in 2006 as a jihadi extremist group and based in East Africa, pledged its support to Al-Qaeda in 2012.

On Tuesday, the group claimed responsibility for an attack on a guesthouse that was hosting a theatre group in Mandera, Kenya that resulted in 12 deaths, BBC News reported. Two other attacks were also carried out, with one exploding a truck near an African Union military base. The militants may have also used explosives to enter the guesthouse. Victims were mostly university students, according to Quartz. Al-Shabab also claimed 15 people were killed, not 12.

A number of attacks have taken place in Mandera and they have mostly targeted Christians, the BBC also reported.

An embassy spokesperson condemned the attacks in a statement and said the U.S. still “stands” with the Kenya and Somalia people.

Al Shabaab is also the same terror group that carried out the attack on Garissa University, in Nairobi and roughly 90 miles away from the Somali border, that resulted in 147 deaths and 79 others injured in April last year. In September 2013, the group was responsible for the death of 67 people in the Westgate shopping mall mass shooting.