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[h=4]Al-Shabaab militants kill 15 in Kenya university attack[/h]Militants from the Somali terror group al-Shabaab have killed least 15 people and injured scores in an attack at a university in eastern Kenya, witnesses said.
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The terror group Al-Shabaab is claiming responsibility for an early morning attack on Garissa University College in Kenya. At least 15 are feared dead. This same group carried out the 2013 attack at the Westgate mall in Nairobi. VPC
Kenyan police officers take cover outside the Garissa University College during an attack by gunmen on April 2.(Photo: AP)
Militants from the Somali terror group al-Shabaab have killed least 15 people and injured scores in an attack at a university in eastern Kenya, witnesses said.
More than 500 students were unaccounted for after gunmen attacked Garissa University College early Thursday. The militants say they have taken hostages.
The Associated Press said a morgue worker in Garissa town said at least 15 people have been killed. Officials earlier said three of four dorms were evacuated, and the gunmen were cornered in one dorm.
Al-Shabaab, an Islamist group based in southern Somalia, claimed responsibility for the attack.
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Gunmen attacked Garissa University College in eastern Kenya early April 2, shooting indiscriminately in campus hostels, killing at least two people and wounding four others, police said. AP
Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al-Shabaab's military operations spokesman, told Reuters: "We sorted people out and released the Muslims. Fighting still goes on inside the college." He told the news agency that the militants were holding many Christian hostages.
Kenya's Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery told a news conference in Nairobi that one suspected terrorist was arrested as he tried to flee the scene.
Ali Mohamud Rage, another al-Shabaab spokesman, said in a radio broadcast that militants are conducting a "heavy" military operation inside the campus, the AP reported.
Collins Wetangula, the vice chairman of the university's student union, said he was getting ready to take a shower when he heard gunshots and locked himself and three roommates in their room, the AP reported.
"All I could hear were footsteps and gunshots; nobody was screaming because they thought this would lead the gunmen to know where they are," he said. "The gunmen were saying 'sisi ni al-Shabab' (we are al-Shabab)," he said.
He told the AP he could hear the gunmen opening doors and asking people whether they were Muslims or Christians.
"If you were a Christian you were shot on the spot," he said. "With each blast of the gun I thought I was going to die."
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He said the gunmen began to shoot rapidly and the students saw people in military uniforms through a window who identified themselves as the Kenyan military. Wetangula said the soldiers took him and around 20 others to safety.
The Kenya National Disaster Operations Center tweeted that 280 out of 815 students have been accounted for, and that efforts are underway to track the others.
The Kenya Red Cross said 65 people had been taken to a local hospital. Four critically injured people have been airlifted to the capital Nairobi for treatment, the disaster operations center said.
A statement on the Twitter account of Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet said that armed attackers forced their way into the university by shooting at the guards at the main gate at around 5:30 a.m. local time.
Police officers guarding the dorms engaged the gunmen in a "fierce shootout, however the attackers retreated and gained entry into the hostels," the statement said.
The officers called for reinforcements, and are "engaged in an elaborate process of flushing out the gunmen from the hostels," the statement added.
Student Augustine Alanga, 21, who escaped the attack, told the AP that some students stayed indoors while others fled with gunmen firing at them.
Alanga said he saw at least five heavily armed, masked men.
"I am just now recovering from the pain as I injured myself while trying to escape. I was running barefoot," he told the AP.
He said students taking part in morning prayers at the university mosque at the time were not attacked.
Students gather and watch from a distance outside the Garissa University College.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: AP)
The U.S. Embassy in Nairobi tweeted: "We are saddened & angered by today's terrorist attack @ #Garissa Univ. Our deepest condolences 2 family/friends of victims. #CowardsNeverWin."
Kenya's northern and eastern regions, which are near the Somali border, have suffered a number of attacks blamed on al-Shabaab, which was declared a terror organization under U.S. law in 2008.
The group, which pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda in 2012, took responsibility for an attack in 2013 at the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, that left more than 60 people dead.
Al-Shabaab has vowed revenge on Kenya for sending troops into Somalia in 2011 to fight the militants.
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