Kenya attack: 14 killed, Somali militants al-Shabab claims responsibility

Nairobi, April 2: At least 14 people were killed and 30 injured as Al-Shabaab militants on Thursday attacked a college at Garissa in Kenya.

In a predawn attack, masked gunmen stormed Garissa University College in the town of Garissa in Kenya.

Muslim and non-Muslim hostages had been separated, and 15 of the Muslim had been freed, said a spokesman for the group, which is part of al-Qaeda, BBC reported.

The university opened in 2011 and is the only place of higher education in the region. It has some 700 students from across the country. Garissa, 150km (90 miles) from the border with Somalia, has a large population of Kenyan Somalis.

Al-Shabab has carried out a number of attacks in Kenya since 2011, when Kenyan troops were sent to Somalia to help fight the militant group there.

The deadliest attack targeted the Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi in September 2013, when 67 people were killed. Al-Shabab is fighting to create an Islamic state in Somalia and is banned as a terrorist group by both the US and the UK.

OneIndia News