Kenya: Al Shabaab gunmen stage siege at university campus, 16 killed

GARISSA, Kenya, April 2, 2015 (Garowe Online)-Al-Shabab gunmen have stormed a university campus in northeastern Kenya, taking students and teachers hostage in an assault that left 16  people dead according to witnesses, Garowe Online reports.

The audacious and heavily armed raid is the latest attack targeting Kenya which saw series of attacks by the Al-Qaeda linked Al-Shabab fighters operating from hideouts in neighboring Somalia.

A spokesman for Al Shabaab said they carried out an attack on University campus in the sleepy town which is situated 100 miles away from the porous border with which Somalia shares Kenya.

Witnesses told Garowe Online that the attackers shot their way into the campus, killing two guards at the entrane  before taking students and teachers hostage.

Kenyan Defence Force (KDF) aided by drones and heavily armed wagons deployed in a bid to clear the campus of Al Shabaab militants. 

Holed up in the ground storey, sporadic shootings could be heard as medics are attending to 67 victims injured in the siege, GO correspondent has confirmed. 

Al-Shabab stepped up attacks on Kenyan soil after the east African nation sent troops into Somalia to fight the Al Qaeda linked Al-Shabab group which it accused of being behind spate of attacks and kidnappings of foreigners inside Kenya.

In late 2013, the militants stormed upscale mall in Nairobi where they killed 67 people. 

Students in dormitories are said to have been quizzed on Islamic creed, with those identified as christians being shot to death right away. 

GAROWE ONLINE