COUNTER TERRORISM: Kenya College Siege

147 Dead.

Kenya
(CIA World Factbook)

Gunmen said to be al Shabab Islamist extremists attack a university campus in Kenya Thursday (April 2), battling security forces for more than 15 hours before the school was secured.

Officials said 147 people at the school — including two security guards — were killed in the siege. Four gunmen also were killed and at least one other person was arrested, according to the BBC and other news organizations.

Garissa University College, about 230 miles (370 kilometers) east of Nairobi (see map) was the scene of the carnage. Kenya’s Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery said the gunmen were wearing suicide vests which exploded, killing them in an exchange of gunfire with government security forces.

More than 500 students were rescued during the attack and 79 were injured. The most seriously hurt were transported to Nairobi for treatment.

An official of al Shabaab, said the violent extremist group launched the attack as a reprisal for previous Kenyan military incursions into Somalia, where the group is based.

The school is located about 125 miles (200 kilometers) from the border with Somalia and has, in recent years, been the site of sporadic gun and grenade attacks blamed on al Shabab, the Voice of America reported.