Kenyan university attacked 148 dead

[dragon]

-- 7:07 a.m. ET: Heavy gunfire and explosions continue at Garissa University College, more than nine hours after the attack began, CNN affiliate NTV says. Hundreds of students flee, some crawling.

-- 6:22 a.m. ET: At least 15 people have been killed by gunmen who attacked a Kenyan university Thursday, officials said, according to CNN affiliate Citizen TV. The officials said 550 people are still unaccounted for at the campus that had about 815 students.

-- 6:22 a.m. ET: The officials said one terrorist has been arrested as he tried to slip through the security cordon and flee the scene.

Full story:

A swarm of gunmen stormed a Kenya university before dawn Thursday, firing indiscriminately and taking hostages.

At least 15 people have been killed, security and interior ministry officials said, according to CNN affiliate Citizen TV. The officials said 550 people are unaccounted for at the campus that had about 815 students.

At least 65 people were hospitalized from the attack at Garissa University College, the Kenyan Red Cross said.

Nine hours after the attack began, heavy gunfire and explosions continued, said Dennis Okari of CNN affiliate NTV.

Okari said he was told to take cover as hundreds of students fled, some crawling.

The Somali-based Al-Shabaab militant group claimed responsibility for the assault. Security and ministry officials said one terrorist was arrested as he tried to slip through the security cordon and flee the scene.

Kenyan forces cleared three of four dormitories and had cornered the militants in the last one, the interior ministry said.

Garissa is about 145 kilometers (90 miles) from the border with Somalia. Al-Shabaab militants have often launched attacks inside Kenya ever since the Kenyan government sent troops across the border to fight the group.
EXPAND IMAGE

Waking up to terror

The gunshots started going off "like fireworks" around 5 a.m., at the time of morning prayers, witness Milka Ndung'u told NTV. She and others escaped to a field, but gunshots followed them.

Augustine Alanga told CNN he woke up to the sound of gunfire and described students running around, seeking safety.
Gunmen storms Kenya university

Gunmen storms Kenya university 03:42
PLAY VIDEO

Assailants forced their way onto the campus by shooting at guards at the front gates, Kenya National Police said.

From there, attackers moved into a nearby girls' hostel, the Red Cross said.

It's not clear how many gunmen were on campus.

"We don't know how many there were, but there are probably more than 10," said Robert Alai Onyango, a blogger in Nairobi. "We believe the attackers were wearing something close to military fatigues."

Onyango said the attackers appeared to be shooting indiscriminately and "basically from all angles."

"They surrounded the mosque ... we don't know why they were surrounding the mosque," Onyango said.

About 300 students who escaped sought refuge at a Kenya Defense Forces camp, local newspaper journalist Steven Astariko said.

"We are saddened & angered by today's terrorist attack @ #Garissa Univ.," the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi tweeted. "Our deepest condolences 2 family/friends of victims."

The university was established in 2011 and is the only public university in the region.

There are normally 800 students in the dormitories when school is in session, Jackstone Kweyu, dean of students, told Citizen TV. There are 1,000 staff members on a normal work day, he said. And there are usually four guards at the campus gates overnight.

The Kenyan Red Cross and the country's health ministry are organizing a blood drive to help the victims.

Al-Shabaab's carnage in Kenya

The dangerously porous border between Somalia and Kenya has made it easy for Al-Shabaab militants to cross over and carry out attacks.

The deadliest assault by Al-Shabaab in Kenya was in September 2013, when the group attacked the Westgate shopping center in Nairobi, killing 67 people.

What is Al-Shabaab, and what does it want?

Last month, the U.S. Embassy warned of possible attacks "throughout Kenya in the near-term" following the reported death of a key al-Shabaab leader, Adan Garaar.

"Although there is no information about a specific location in Kenya for an attack, U.S. citizens are reminded that the potential for terrorism exists," the warning said.

CNN's Brian Walker, Vasco Cotovio and Lillian Leposo contributed to this report.

link

[dragon]

Other web sources are now saying 70 dead

[wautd]

Over 140 now...

[The Romulan Republic]

I've seen that too. Clearly its a very large scale attack.

The death toll is horrific, but there's also something particularly contemptible about an attack on an educational institution.

[cmdrjones]

I've seen that too. Clearly its a very large scale attack.

The death toll is horrific, but there's also something particularly contemptible about an attack on an educational institution.

AS opposed to a shopping mall, a naval vessel, a barracks, a high rise office building, a rural village, a newspaper office, a tribal camp or a military administrative facility?

I'm making an educated guess here, but like most humans you (may) Identify with the victims in this case (people at a place of higher learning) moreso than the others... This is understandable, but you used the adjective phrase "particulary contemptible" to describe the attack. I'd use the same phrase to describe such an attack on a rural village or tribal camp, or even the high rise office, for various other reasons. I'm interested in why you think this target is more contemptible than another target full of helpless innocents.

[The Romulan Republic]

Its not that the lives are any less valuable, and I find your suggestion that that's what I was saying to be distasteful and insulting.

It's that in addition to the loss of life, which would be horrific under any circumstance, this is an attack on education, on knowledge, on the ability of people to make informed choices. So it has an additional cultural and political significance in that sense.

[cmdrjones]

Its not that the lives are any less valuable, and I find your suggestion that that's what I was saying to be distasteful and insulting.

It's that in addition to the loss of life, which would be horrific under any circumstance, this is an attack on education, on knowledge, on the ability of people to make informed choices. So it has an additional cultural and political significance in that sense.

That's why I was asking, out of curiosity... Some people might value other things more highly than education and knowledge and place those types of places higher than an institution of higher learning. Sorry you find your choices contrasted with others choices insulting.

[Iroscato]

Plus the fact that the targets/victims will mostly be young adults who are more or less defenseless.
This is fucking horrendous.

[The Romulan Republic]

Its not that the lives are any less valuable, and I find your suggestion that that's what I was saying to be distasteful and insulting.

It's that in addition to the loss of life, which would be horrific under any circumstance, this is an attack on education, on knowledge, on the ability of people to make informed choices. So it has an additional cultural and political significance in that sense.

That's why I was asking, out of curiosity... Some people might value other things more highly than education and knowledge and place those types of places higher than an institution of higher learning. Sorry you find your choices contrasted with others choices insulting.

I won't continue this ridiculous little tangent any further, but that's not what I was saying. I don't objection to other people comparing their choices to mine. I was objecting to what I felt was the suggestion that I considered these peoples' lives more valuable than others.

[cmdrjones]

Its not that the lives are any less valuable, and I find your suggestion that that's what I was saying to be distasteful and insulting.

It's that in addition to the loss of life, which would be horrific under any circumstance, this is an attack on education, on knowledge, on the ability of people to make informed choices. So it has an additional cultural and political significance in that sense.

That's why I was asking, out of curiosity... Some people might value other things more highly than education and knowledge and place those types of places higher than an institution of higher learning. Sorry you find your choices contrasted with others choices insulting.

I won't continue this ridiculous little tangent any further, but that's not what I was saying. I don't objection to other people comparing their choices to mine. I was objecting to what I felt was the suggestion that I considered these peoples' lives more valuable than others.

Hmmm what is the sound of one hair splitting?

[Ahriman238]

Maybe because university is where people go to better themselves and their circumstances? To learn about the world in depth, to gain the skills to get high-paying jobs, to hope and strive for a better future? And by attacking this you tell people not to try and better themselves, not to hope and plan for the future. Crawl in the dirt and do as you're told.

Attacking a high-rise or an office building can create fear, yes. And it kills people who offered no threat, always a contemptible action. But it in no way poisons the dream of a better tomorrow.

[cosmicalstorm]

Pity everyone in the world spent the past 50 years either smashing Islamic modernists in the face or actively supporting radical Islamists like the Sauds. The population explosion predicted for Africa won't exactly help. Will this conflict between Islamists and others in Africa grow and grow or is this some temporary situation?

[K. A. Pital]

AS opposed to ... a naval vessel, a barracks

Yes, especially opposed to that. Naval vessels and barracks are military installations. Military installations and military personnel are legitimate military targets. A soldier, especially on active duty, has the expectation that he or she can die. It is a professional risk. A student does not sign up for such professional risks. Students are not a legitimate target. They did not study how to use firearms and kill other people; it is not their job. They are studying to expand their knowledge. It is pretty preposterous to compare the two, but you still did.

[cmdrjones]

AS opposed to ... a naval vessel, a barracks

Yes, especially opposed to that. Naval vessels and barracks are military installations. Military installations and military personnel are legitimate military targets. A soldier, especially on active duty, has the expectation that he or she can die. It is a professional risk. A student does not sign up for such professional risks. Students are not a legitimate target. They did not study how to use firearms and kill other people; it is not their job. They are studying to expand their knowledge. It is pretty preposterous to compare the two, but you still did.

Along with a bunch of other real world examples....

[madd0ct0r]

Pity everyone in the world spent the past 50 years either smashing Islamic modernists in the face or actively supporting radical Islamists like the Sauds. The population explosion predicted for Africa won't exactly help. Will this conflict between Islamists and others in Africa grow and grow or is this some temporary situation?

There will always be those who seek to destroy the status quo in favour of themselves. Islamist actions are good news cycle fodder at the moment.
The population explosion you describe is not evenly distributed across the continent, and tends to be in areas of high uncertainty. Stability and female education means popualtions stabilise.

[K. A. Pital]

Along with a bunch of other real world examples....

Attacking schools and universities is worse than attacking military targets quite surely. It is also worse than attacking other civilian installations (shopping mall, highrise), because schools and universities generally house children, and killing children is the loss of a greater life expectancy, people view it as killing the future. It also discourages people in poorer nations to send children to schools and universities - which is also killing the future of the nation.

The only example I would agree is as horrible is an attack on a hospital (usually it has children and helpless adults together, and doctors, and its only goal is to alleviate human suffering). Strangely, you did not see fit to mention it.

Instead you mentioned barracks, naval vessels and administrative facilities - something that is considered a valid target according to the laws of war.

[dragon]

Kenyan bombs Al Shabab

Kenyan fighter jets have bombed positions of militant Islamist group al-Shabab in neighbouring Somalia, a military spokesman has told the BBC.

The warplanes had targeted two camps in the Gedo region, used by al-Shabab to cross into Kenya, the spokesman added.

This is Kenya's first response to an al-Shabab assault which left 148 people dead at Garissa University last week.

President Uhuru Kenyatta had vowed to respond to the attack "in the severest way possible".

Kenyan army spokesman David Obonyo told the BBC that the military had responded to "threats" by launching the air strike on Sunday night in the remote region.

No further details of the operation were available at this stage, he said.

link

[jwl]

I've seen that too. Clearly its a very large scale attack.

The death toll is horrific, but there's also something particularly contemptible about an attack on an educational institution.

AS opposed to a shopping mall, a naval vessel, a barracks, a high rise office building, a rural village, a newspaper office, a tribal camp or a military administrative facility?

I'm making an educated guess here, but like most humans you (may) Identify with the victims in this case (people at a place of higher learning) moreso than the others... This is understandable, but you used the adjective phrase "particulary contemptible" to describe the attack. I'd use the same phrase to describe such an attack on a rural village or tribal camp, or even the high rise office, for various other reasons. I'm interested in why you think this target is more contemptible than another target full of helpless innocents.

The cost of an attack isn't just the death toll, the resulting fear can also does damage. And making people fearful to go to school or uni is not a good thing.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

IMO, the thread title needs an extra zero for the sake of accuracy. Let's hope the fuckers who did this get what's coming to them.

[K. A. Pital]

Done, though not formally requested. I agree that it was ten times more and the title should reflect that. It really is one of the worst recent assaults of that kind.

[madd0ct0r]

thanks Stas, it's the least we can do.

from: http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2 ... kenya.html

Why is Al-Shabab attacking Kenya?
Armed group raises its international profile, retaliates against Kenya for sending troops to fight it in Somalia
April 3, 2015 6:00PM ET
by Lisa De Bode @lisadebode Google+
As with its assault on the Westgate mall in Nairobi in 2013, Al-Shabab’s attack on a Kenyan university Thursday in the northeast town of Garissa is another example of the armed group striking at vulnerable civilian targets in retaliation for Kenya’s involvement in a regional military action against it in Somalia, analysts say.

The Garissa attack left at least 148 students dead, in a siege of the university that lasted nearly 15 hours after gunmen shot their way into the college. The attack, the deadliest since the United States embassy in Nairobi was bombed in 1998, comes less than two years after Al-Shabab fighters raided the Westgate mall in Nairobi, taking dozens of hostages and killing 67 people.

Experts on armed insurgent groups in East Africa say that Al-Shabab is targeting Kenya because of the government‘s decision in 2011 to provide troops to the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), with United Nations approval. This peacekeeping mission, which includes a military component that draws troops from Ethiopia, Djibouti, Burundi, Sierra Leone and Uganda, was put together to root out Al-Shabab from its strongholds in south and central Somalia. The mission has counted a number of significant successes in recent years, such as the recapturing of important port cities along the Somali coast and the killing of several Al-Shabab leaders.

In March, AMISOM seized Kuday, an island off the port city of Kismayo, which Al-Shabab fighters used to smuggle contraband charcoal that it sells to Gulf states to sustain its operations. The killing that same month of Adnan Garaar, who allegedly helped plan the Westgate attack, by a U.S. drone also delivered an important blow to the organization, the Pentagon reported. Much of the capital of Mogadishu is back in the Somali government’s hands, AMISON reported, but car bombs and suicide attacks continue to rock the capital.

These recent military setbacks suffered by Al-Shabab help explain why the group is targeting vulnerable populations within in Kenya, said Joshua Meservey, assistant director at the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center. “They [Al-Shabab] can’t control as much territory as they once did,” Meservey said. “They can’t fight AMISOM in a conventional military battle, so really they’re left with terror attacks.”

Al-Shabab is also exploiting partisan rifts within Kenya, according to a recent report by the International Crisis Group. Historical grievances of marginalization of Muslim communities and their discrimination in national institutions have divided the government, the opposition and Muslim leaders. Political stakeholders cannot decide on how best to tackle the insurgency. “The absence of a common Kenyan Muslim agenda and leadership has meant little resistance to the extremist message,” the group noted.

The rise of the Islamic State In Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), an armed group that has captured swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria, may also play a role in Al-Shabab’s decision to launch a large-scale attack. ISIL has dominated international headlines over the past year, and recently became affiliated with Boko Haram, an insurgency that originated in Nigeria and aims to establish a “caliphate” there.

Al-Shabab, meanwhile, has pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda, and may see headline-grabbing attacks, like the ones at Westgate and Garissa, as a way of raising their profile, according to Katherine Zimmerman, research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. “There is some traction that Al Shabab can get in labeling [itself] a crusader army,” Zimmerman said. “It’s a recruitment tool.”

Al-Shabab, Somalia's largest armed group, started out as one of many factions fighting against the U.N.-backed Transitional Federal Government based in Mogadishu. It morphed into what the United States labeled a "terrorist" organization after staging attacks on prominent foreign and national targets.

Kenya has responded by continuing to bomb Al-Shabab sites: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/04/k ... 47444.html

Also recently emerged is that at least one of the gunmen was Kenyan, a goverment official's son. This will not help the marginalization and suspicion of the islamic minority that itself is a recruiting tool for Al-Shabad.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/04/k ... 08543.html

[cmdrjones]

Along with a bunch of other real world examples....

Attacking schools and universities is worse than attacking military targets quite surely. It is also worse than attacking other civilian installations (shopping mall, highrise), because schools and universities generally house children, and killing children is the loss of a greater life expectancy, people view it as killing the future. It also discourages people in poorer nations to send children to schools and universities - which is also killing the future of the nation.

The only example I would agree is as horrible is an attack on a hospital (usually it has children and helpless adults together, and doctors, and its only goal is to alleviate human suffering). Strangely, you did not see fit to mention it.

Instead you mentioned barracks, naval vessels and administrative facilities - something that is considered a valid target according to the laws of war.

WEll, those were sterilised non-specific real world examples. I would hazard a guess that while hospitals WOULD be an attractive target they are frequently placed too close to law enforcement and large cities that may be difficult to escape from. but other than that I agree with you. I would have chosen village and camp for the very reason you listed in this last post: The killing of children. I find that a wee bit worse than attacking a university because it IS in fact killing the future. Of course university 'kids' are not seen by everybody as full fledged grown ups, but it's still way up there on the horror scale.