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.