Israel was among the countries that warned Kenya’s government about the high risk of a terrorist attack in the months before last week’s attack on a Nairobi mall.

“Israel had warned of attacks on their business interests, but apart from just being tossed from one office to another, nothing was taken out of the intelligence reports,” an anonymous official told the French news agency AFP in a report released Sunday.

A report in the Kenyan daily The Nation, citing a leaked intelligence report, said the treasury, interior, foreign affairs and defense ministers, as well as the army chief, had been told of the high risk of a terror attack, according to AFP.

AFP cited security sources as saying that “Israeli services are playing a lead role in the ongoing investigation into the attack.”

Israeli defense officials last week confirmed that a security team arrived in Nairobi within hours of the hostage crisis at the Westgate Mall. The officials said the team advised Kenya authorities on the terrorist standoff at the upscale mall and did not include combat units.

At least 68 people were killed in the four-day siege, in which non-Muslims were singled out for death. Some 175 people were injured in the attack.

One Israeli was injured and three others escaped harm, according to Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Several Americans also were injured.

The five-story shopping center features several Israeli-owned outlets, according to wire services. Among them is the ArtCaffe — the attack by eight gunmen took place near the coffee shop and bakery.

Members of al Shabab, a Somalia-based terror group linked to al-Qaida, claimed responsibility for the attack. Al Shabab said the attack was revenge for Kenya’s military operations in Somalia that began nearly two years ago.

Seven members of the terrorist organization known as al-Shabab, an al Qaeda offshoot, exploded a bomb outside the UN headquarters in Mogadishu, Somalia on Wednesday, June 19.

The terrorists detonated a truck rigged with explosives at the gate to the compound. Seven of the attackers died and nine others were killed, bringing the total dead to 16.  After the truck exploded, terrorists poured in and briefly took control of the compound.

African Union and Somali security forces responded and took control of the compound following a 90 minute gun battle. The UN staff who sought refuge in the compound’s secure bunker then were evacuated to the secure military base and airport complex across the street, Ben Parker, a spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia, said, according to CTVNews.

The UN had only recently expanded its presence in Mogadishu, believing control over the area by Islamic terrorists had receded. The hope that al Shabab had been routed by African Union peacekeeping forces was punctured by Wednesday’s bombing.

“The United Nations Common Compound houses UN personnel working on humanitarian and development issues for the Somali people. This was an act of blatant terrorism and a desperate attempt to knock Somalia off its path of recovery and peace building,” said Nicholas  Kay, the top UN official in Somalia.

Al Shabab is an army of radicalized clerics and fighters trained in Pakistan.  They are committed to overthrowing Somalia’s government,and seek to impose Islamic Sharia – a political religious ideology. Al Shabab became affiliated with al Qaeda in 2010.

Al Shabab was thought to have been largely defeated in Mogadishu, a city it occupied and ruled for four years until most of its fighters were driven out in 2012 by African Union peacekeeping forces.