Death toll from Kenya university attack rises to 147
The death toll from an attack by al-Shabab militants on a university in the town of Garissa in eastern Kenya has risen to 147, Kenyan government officials say.
The officials said that security forces killed all the four attackers who had taken hundreds of students hostage at the Garissa University College campus on Thursday.
The officials added that 587 students had been rescued, and 79 of them were injured during the rescue operation.
Local sources say security has been extremely beefed up in the region and all communications and mobile networks have been cut off. The government has also ordered a night curfew in the town and nearby cities.
Early on Thursday, the gunmen stormed the campus, located some 150 kilometers (90 miles) from the border with Somalia.
Somalia-based al-Shabab militants claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was carried out in revenge for Kenya’s military operations in Somalia.
“Kenya is at war with Somalia… our people are still there, they are fighting and their mission is to kill those who are against the Shebab,” Ali Mohamud Rage, a spokesman for the militant group, said.
Kenya’s northern and eastern regions, which border Somalia, have been the scene of violent attacks blamed on al-Shabab militants from Somalia.
Kenya currently has over 3,000 soldiers stationed in southern Somalia, where they have been battling al-Shabab. The country sent troops into Somalia in late 2011 after the militant group carried out a series of raids inside Kenya.
The al-Shabab militants have been pushed out of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, and other major cities in the country by the African Union Mission in Somalia, which is largely made up of troops from Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Burundi, Djibouti and Sierra Leone.
DB/HJL/MHB
South Africa to file detailed dossier with top UN court on Israeli genocide
Putin: BRICS, not the West, will drive global economic prosperity
Pentagon says completed US military withdrawal from Niger
VIDEO | IAEA adopts anti-Iran resolution tabled by E3
VIDEO | Iran's president urges Pope to help end Israel's onslaught in Gaza
Iran's senior legal official: ICC arrest warrants for Netanyahu ‘great victory'
Nov. 21: ‘Axis of Resistance’ operations against Israeli occupation
VIDEO | Israeli forces storm West Bank’s Jenin again, target civilians
Iran activates advanced centrifuges after IAEA's 'unjust' resolution
VIDEO | Press TV's news headlines
Iran FM: Response to Israeli aggression 'inevitable'
PressTV NEWSLETTER
now
This makes it easy to access the Press TV website
