Kenya troops storm university campus held by al-Shabab
NEWS DESK (DİHA) - Kenyan security forces have stormed a dormitory held by al-Shabab gunmen who had attacked a university campus in the town of Garissa in northeast Kenya.
The operation began after members of the Somalia-based group killed at least 15 people and took an unknown number hostage after dawn on Thursday. The sound of heavy fighting could be heard and smoke could be seen coming from the building where the fighters were holed up, witnesses told Al Jazeera on Thursday evening. "It looks like the final moments of the Westgate mall attack" said Alinoor Moulid, a freelance journalist based in Garissa, referring to the 2013 attack in Nairobi. Witnesses said explosions and heavy gunfire rocked Garissa University College early on Thursday as al-Shabab stormed the complex. Ambulances were seen driving injured students to local hospitals.
The gunmen from the Somalia-based group were holding an "unknown number of student hostages," the Kenya Red Cross said in a statement. About "50 students have been safely freed", the organisation said. Terrified students streamed out of buildings, some young men shirtless, as arriving police officers hunkered down, taking cover, witnesses said.
The al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group said their gunmen were holding Christian hostages inside the complex in revenge for Nairobi's troops fighting in Somalia. The gunmen divided students at the university between Muslims and non-Muslims, letting the Muslim students go, the group's spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage told AFP news agency by telephone.
Rage said the armed group had targeted Kenya for its involvement African Union mission against al-Shabab in Somalia. "When our men arrived, they released some people, the Muslims, and it is them that alerted the government. We are holding the others hostage," he said, adding those seized were Christians, but not saying how many there were. Kenya's interior ministry released an image of a man they suspect of being behind the attack. Authorities are offering a $215,000 reward for information leading the capture of Mohamed Mohamud, also known as Dulyadin and Gamadhere.
Authorities also claimed to have killed two hostage takers, without confirming how many fighters remained. Cabinet secretary Joseph Nkaissery had earlier said one of the attackers was arrested as he tried to flee the scene.
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