BRKG Al Shabaab storms Kenyan university, 147 reported killed

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Housecarl

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For links see article source.....
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http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/04/02/kenya-security-college-idINKBN0MT0CI20150402

Top | Thu Apr 2, 2015 6:23pm IST

Al Shabaab storms Kenyan university, 14 reported killed

NAIROBI | By Drazen Jorgic

(Reuters) - At least 14 people were reported killed on Thursday when Islamist militant group al Shabaab stormed a Kenyan university campus, taking Christians hostage and exchanging gunfire with security forces over several hours.

With scores of students wounded and hundreds unaccounted for, police and soldiers surrounded Garissa University College. They sealed off the compound and were trying to flush out the gunmen, the head of Kenya's police force, Joseph Boinet, said.

Al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the pre-dawn attack near the Somali border. The group has links to al Qaeda and a track record of raids on Kenyan soil in retaliation for Nairobi sending troops to fight it in its home state of Somalia.

Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, its military operations spokesman, said it was holding many Christian hostages inside.

"We sorted people out and released the Muslims," he told Reuters. "Fighting still goes on inside the college."

Boinet said in a statement that the attackers had "shot indiscriminately" while inside the university compound, adding police had been guarding the university's four hostels at the time.

At least 14 people had been killed, including two security personnel, a policeman at the scene said, while the Red Cross said 50 students had been freed.

Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery said 280 of the 815 students at the university had been accounted for and efforts were under way to track down the others, according to the Twitter feed of Kenya's national disaster agency.

The agency did not give an estimate of how many students remained trapped on the campus.

Some had managed to escape unaided.

"We heard some gunshots and we were sleeping so it was around five and guys started jumping up and down running for their lives," an unnamed student told Reuters TV.

Sixty-five people were wounded, the disaster agency said. Four had been airlifted to Nairobi for treatment.

"We have 49 casualties so far, all with bullet and (shrapnel) wounds," said a doctor at Garissa hospital.


TOURISM AND RELIGION

Al Shabaab, which seeks to impose its own harsh variant of sharia law, has separated Muslims from Christians in some of its previous raids in Kenya, notably late last year in attacks on a bus and at a quarry.

Its repeated raids, together with attacks on churches by home-grown Islamist groups, have in recent years strained the historically cordial relations between Kenya's Muslim and Christian communities.

Having killed more than 200 people in Kenya over the past two years, Al Shabaab has also brought the country's tourism industry to its knees.

Thursday's attack, which the U.S. embassy in Nairobi said in a Twitter post it was "saddened and angered" by, undermined a renewed drive by President Uhuru Kenyatta to persuade foreigners the country is now safe to visit.

On Wednesday, he urged Kenyans abroad to help attract tourists back despite the wave of militant violence, criticising a warning from Australia of a possible attack in Nairobi and an advisory from Britain urging its citizens to avoid most coastal resorts.

Kenyatta was due to address the nation later on Thursday about the attack on Garissa, a town some 200 kilometres (120 miles) from the porous Somali border that al Shabaab has previously raided.

Grace Kai, a student at the Garissa Teachers Training College near the university, said there had been warnings that an attack in the town could be imminent.

"Some strangers had been spotted in Garissa town and were suspected to be terrorists," she told Reuters.

"Then on Monday our college principal told us ...that strangers had been spotted in our college... On Tuesday we were released to go home, and our college closed, but the campus remained in session, and now they have been attacked."

Many Kenyans living in the crime-ridden frontier regions blame the government for not doing enough to protect its citizens from the militants.

Having declared it would punish Kenya for sending troops into Somalia to fight it alongside African Union peacekeepers, Al Shabaab was also responsible for a deadly attack in 2013 on the upscale Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi.


(Additional reporting by Joseph Akwiri, Edith Honan and Humphrey Malalo and Susan Heavey in Washington; Writing by John Stonestreet; Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)
 
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Housecarl

On TB every waking moment
For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/least-two-dead-kenya-university-attack-official-061028590.html#nTbNzn3

Masked Islamists seize Kenya student hostages, kill 15
By AFP | AFP – 1 hour 13 minutes ago.

Masked gunmen from Somalia's Shebab Islamist group stormed a Kenyan university Thursday as students were sleeping, hurling grenades and shooting dead at least 15 people before taking Christians hostage.

Scores of others were wounded in the assault, still ongoing some 12 hours after the first grenades were used to blast open the gates of the university in the northeastern town of Garissa, near the lawless border with war-torn Somalia.

The Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab claimed the pre-dawn attack, the same insurgents who carried out the Westgate shopping mall massacre in Nairobi September 2013, when four gunmen slaughtered at least 67 people in a four-day bloodbath.

"We were woken up by sounds of gunfire... no one knew exactly what was going on, ladies were screaming and people were running for their lives," student Ungama John said.

Other students said they saw up to four masked gunmen.

Shebab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage told AFP the gunmen had taken non-Muslims hostage, but gave no numbers.

"When our men arrived, they released the Muslims. We are holding others hostage," Rage said, describing those seized as Christians.

"Our people are still there, they are fighting and their mission is to kill those who are against the Shebab," he said.

"Kenya is at war with Somalia," Rage said, referring to the thousands of Kenyan troops in Somalia as part of an African Union military mission.

Gunfire could still be heard sporadically 12 hours after the attack began, as Kenya's interior ministry said the "attackers have been cornered in one hostel".

Soldiers with tanks were deployed around the campus.

Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery said 15 people had been killed, and that "one suspected terrorist" had been arrested attempting to flee.

Kenya's official National Disaster Operation Centre said a further 65 had been injured, many suffering from gunshot wounds.

- 'Gunmen shot indiscriminately' -

The Kenya Red Cross, which is leading the medical response to the attack, said there were "an unknown number of student hostages" and that "50 students have been safely freed".

The town of Garissa is around 150 kilometres (90 miles) west of Somalia and has in the past been targeted by militants from the Shebab.

Police chief Joseph Boinet said "the gunmen shot indiscriminately" after storming the compound.

The sprawling campus, on the outskirts of the garrison town, has both teaching areas as well as residential blocks.

The university has several hundred students from different parts of Kenya. The number of teachers and students trapped inside the campus was unclear as gunfire and explosions were heard coming from the site.

"Police... engaged the gunmen in a fierce shootout, however the attackers retreated and gained entry into one of the hostels," Boinet said, adding that reinforcements had arrived and were "flushing out the gunmen."

- Wave of attacks -

Witness Ahmed Nur said he saw the bodies of two university guards, shot by the attackers.

Kenya Red Cross, quoting local health officials, said that 30 people had been taken to hospital, "the majority" with gunshot wounds.

Kenya has been hit by a wave of grenade and gun attacks, often blamed on sympathisers of the Shebab and sometimes aimed at police targets, since the army crossed into southern Somalia in 2011 to attack Islamist bases.

A series of foreign travel warnings in response to the threat have crippled Kenya's economically important tourism industry.

On Wednesday, just hours before the attack in Garissa began, President Uhuru Kenyatta said Kenya "is as safe as any country in the world".

On Thursday, he offered condolences to those killed, but said security forces had made the "appropriate deployment to the affected area".

British High Commissioner Christian Turner condemned the "cowardly" attack, while US Ambassador Robert Godec called the killings "heinous".

Kenya's government has been under fire since the Westgate attack. In June and July last year Shebab gunmen killed close to 100 people in a series of attacks on the town of Mpeketoni and nearby villages.

In November, Shebab claimed responsibility for holding up a bus outside Mandera town, separating passengers according to religion and murdering 28 non-Muslims. Ten days later 36 non-Muslim quarry workers were also massacred in the area.
 
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Housecarl

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http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/kenya-university-terror-attack-students-5448139

Kenya university terror attack: Students 'beheaded' as al-Shabab gang storms campus and kills at least 15

16:04, 2 April 2015
By Andy Lines

The five man gang freed Muslims and killed Christians during the horrific attack

Terrorists have beheaded some students in the horrific Kenya university attack, it has been reported.

At least 15 people have been killed as the gang from al-Shabab stormed the campus in Garissa.

Locals are now claiming that some students had their heads cut off in the shocking raid.

Police have yet to confirm these reports but confirm the death toll could rise “substantially”.

Gunmen are still holed up in one of the dormitories.

Eye-witnesses said the armed men entered the campus in the town of Garissa and started firing indiscriminately.

Kenyan army troops have surrounded the university and are exchanging gunfire with the terrorists.

Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab's military operations spokesman, said: "We sorted people out and released the Muslims.

"There are many dead bodies of Christians inside the building.

“We are also holding many Christians alive. Fighting still goes on inside the college."

Augustine Alanga, a 21-year-old student who survived the attack described how gunshots rang out outside their dormitory before dawn when most people were still fast asleep.

He said he saw at least five heavily armed, masked gunmen.

"I am just now recovering from the pain as I injured myself while trying to escape. I was running barefoot," said Mr Alanga, who was one of scores of students who managed to escape through barbed-wire fencing.

At the time the attack started - at 5.30am local time - morning prayers were under way at the university mosque, where students were not attacked.

A mortuary attendant in the town of Garissa says at least 15 people have been killed and at some 60 were injured.

Some of the more serious wounded were being flown to Nairobi, the capital, authorities said.

The National Disaster Operations Centre said on Twitter that three of four dorms have been evacuated, with the gunmen cornered in one dorm.

Terrified students streamed out of buildings, some young men shirtless, as arriving police officers hunkered down, taking cover.

The gunmen had opened fire at guards, triggering a "fierce shootout" with police guarding student dorms, Kenya's National Police Service said in a written statement.
 
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Possible Impact

TB Fanatic
CBC News Alerts @CBCAlerts · 3m
#Kenya's interior ministry says523 students
still unaccounted for after attack on college.
17 known dead, including 2 two #alShabaab gunmen


 Hannah McNeish @HannahMcNeish · 37m
#GarissaAttacks: Heavy gunfire in Kenya university
as troops 'intensify' rescue: interior @AFPAfrica reports




Hannah McNeish @HannahMcNeish · 34m
As the light fades in #Kenya,
horrible deja vus of #Westgate
imagining how hostages much be feeling
trapped in #Garissa University dorm.





Dennis Okari @DennisOkari · 42m
UPDATE: 22 bodies being flown to Nairobi
and the number could rise an official tells me
@ntvkenya





#BanKhat @AlinoorMB · 58m
I spoke to an injured student in the hospital,
he says gunmen were indiscriminate in their initial attack.
They spoke Swahili & were 'angry'
 
Red Baron

Red Baron

Paleo-Conservative
_______________
Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, its military operations spokesman, said it was holding many Christian hostages inside.

"We sorted people out and released the Muslims," he told Reuters. "Fighting still goes on inside the college."
Click to expand...

Savages
 
P

Possible Impact

TB Fanatic
Red Baron said:
[FONT=Verdana,Arial]Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, its military operations spokesman, said it was holding many Christian hostages inside.

"We sorted people out and released the Muslims," he told Reuters. "Fighting still goes on inside the college." [/FONT]
Click to expand...
Savages
Click to expand...


Reuters Africa @ReutersAfrica · 7h
"There are many dead bodies of Christians inside the building.
We are also holding many Christians alive'
- al Shabaab
#Kenya #GarissaAttack



:dot5: might want to update Title
to reflect 70 dead (confirmed by Kenyan Gov)
 
H

Housecarl

On TB every waking moment
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Posted for fair use.....
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/02/us-kenya-security-college-idUSKBN0MT0CK20150402

World | Thu Apr 2, 2015 1:21pm EDT
Related: World, Africa

Al Shabaab storms Kenyan university, 70 killed

GARISSA, Kenya | By Edith Honan

(Reuters) - Gunmen from the Islamist militant group al Shabaab stormed a Kenyan university campus on Thursday, killing and wounding dozens of students and staff.

Police and soldiers surrounded the Garissa University College and exchanged gunfire with the attackers throughout the day.

Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, an Al Shabaab's spokesman, said the gunmen were holding Christian hostages inside.

"We sorted people out and released the Muslims," he told Reuters.


Video
Related Video

Islamists storm Kenyan university, 14 killed

Several hours into the incident, Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery told reporters in Garissa that the death toll was at least 70, with 79 wounded, but the siege was almost over. About 500 out of 815 students were accounted for, he said.

He did not specify precisely how many students, staff or security personnel had died but said four al Shabaab fighters were killed.

However, he cautioned that "the operation is ongoing, anything can happen".

One Kenyan policeman at the scene of the attack said six al Shabaab fighters, from the original 10 that stormed the university campus, remain holed up inside, along with about 100 student hostages.


Related Coverage
› Death toll in Kenya university attack rises to 70, siege near end: Interior Minister
› Kenya kills two attackers at university, intensifies rescue operation: interior ministry
› Kenya offers 20 million shillings for arrest of university attack suspect
› Kenya president vows to speed up police recruitment after university attack

Al Shabaab, who carried out the deadly attack on the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi in 2013, claimed responsibility for the pre-dawn raid on the campus in Garissa, a town 200 km (120 miles) from the Somali border.

The group has links to al Qaeda and a record of raids on Kenyan soil in retaliation for Nairobi sending troops to fight it in its home state of Somalia.

Kenyan police chief Joseph Boinet said the attackers had "shot indiscriminately" while inside the university compound.

One image provided by a local journalist showed a dozen blood-soaked bodies strewn across a single university classroom.

Some students had managed to escape unaided.

"We heard some gunshots and we were sleeping so it was around five and guys started jumping up and down running for their lives," an unnamed student told Reuters TV.

Authorities offered a 20 million shilling ($215,000) reward for information leading to the arrest of a man called Mohamed Mohamud, described as "most wanted" and linked to the attack.

Police chief Boinet said Kenya had imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew on four regions near the Somalia border.


TOURISM AND RELIGION

Al Shabaab, which seeks to impose its own harsh version of sharia law, has separated Muslims from Christians in some of its previous raids in Kenya, notably late last year in attacks on a bus and at a quarry.

Its repeated raids, together with attacks on churches by home-grown Islamist groups, have strained the cordial relations between Kenya's Muslim and Christian communities.

Having killed more than 200 people in Kenya over the past two years, Al Shabaab has also brought the tourism industry to its knees.

Thursday's attack undermined a renewed drive by President Uhuru Kenyatta to persuade foreigners the country is now safe to visit.

On Wednesday, he had urged Kenyans abroad to help attract tourists back despite the wave of militant violence, criticizing a warning from Australia of a possible attack in Nairobi and an advisory from Britain urging its citizens to avoid most coastal resorts.

Grace Kai, a student at the Garissa Teachers Training College near the university, said there had been warnings that an attack in the town could be imminent.

"Some strangers had been spotted in Garissa town and were suspected to be terrorists," she told Reuters.

"Then on Monday our college principal told us ... that strangers had been spotted in our college... On Tuesday we were released to go home, and our college closed, but the campus remained in session, and now they have been attacked."

Many Kenyans living in the crime-ridden frontier regions blame the government for not doing enough to protect its citizens from the militants.


(Additional reporting by Joseph Akwiri, Edith Honan and Humphrey Malalo and Susan Heavey in Washington; Writing by Drazen Jorgic, John Stonestreet; Editing by Jeremy Gaunt and Giles Elgood)
 
Hawkgirl_70

Hawkgirl_70

Veteran Member
They're a peaceful religion. I'm waiting on Pres Big Ears Dumbo to come out and say this wasn't Islam, this was just random workplace violence.
 
Doomer Doug

Doomer Doug

TB Fanatic
It is interesting this is a Sunni Muslim group, linked to Al Qaida, doing the attack. This means it has no real link to the ongoing events in Yemen and is in response to domestic African/Kenyan/Somalia issues.

We would be wise to remember Militant Islam hates multiple groups for multiple reasons. The Shia hate the Sunni; the Sunni hate the Shia. They both hate Jews and Crusader Infidels. They also are willing to kill at will.

This particular attacks look to be directed at shattering the Kenyan economy and sense of security relating to Kenyan military deployments into Somalia. Yep, everybody wants to kill everybody else these days.

It is another reason why arming students and teachers is the best way to deal with this kind of random violence.
 
Hawkgirl_70

Hawkgirl_70

Veteran Member
Doomer Doug said:
It is interesting this is a Sunni Muslim group, linked to Al Qaida, doing the attack. This means it has no real link to the ongoing events in Yemen and is in response to domestic African/Kenyan/Somalia issues.

We would be wise to remember Militant Islam hates multiple groups for multiple reasons. The Shia hate the Sunni; the Sunni hate the Shia. They both hate Jews and Crusader Infidels. They also are willing to kill at will.

This particular attacks look to be directed at shattering the Kenyan economy and sense of security relating to Kenyan military deployments into Somalia. Yep, everybody wants to kill everybody else these days.

It is another reason why arming students and teachers is the best way to deal with this kind of random violence.
Click to expand...

AGREED 100%
(and I joined your blog email list. :>)
 
Laurane

Laurane

Canadian Loonie
The Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab claimed the pre-dawn attack.......

this cannot be........Pres Obama said al-Qaeda was done for.......must have them confused with another group. (sarcasm)
 
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Doomer Doug

Doomer Doug

TB Fanatic
Pres Obama said Al Qaida was done for, oh pleezzzzz! This is known as black, black humor. It may even rise to the level of satire. Obama as Commander in Chief falls into the category of somebody put LSD in Doomer Doug's coffee and failed to mention it. <G>
 
jed turtle

jed turtle

a brother in the Lord
Obama is america's greatest threat precisely because he is a Muslim holding America hostage until he's able to kill all the christians
 
bev

bev

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Praying for the families of those who were injured or killed, and for all the students who were there. My God, can anyone imagine what they were feeling and thinking?!

I wonder whether (hope) I would be strong enough to say I was a Christian, knowing that would probably be the last thing I ever said.

Come quickly, Lord Jesus.
 
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narnia4

Senior Member
I know many will scoff but I truly believe Obama is celebrating, he clearly is a Muslim himself and hates all Christians. If you look at his deeds instead of just reacting to the medias bs, that conclusion is inescapable.

He also is definitely pleased when our servicemen get killed --- just watch him. He is the slimiest, filthiest...... well never mind.
 
H

Housecarl

On TB every waking moment
Part of the security problem that Kenya has is besides being 82% Christian and 11% Muslim, it is also tribally divided into seven main tribal groups and numerous minor ones.

Those sorts of divisions and the political discord that comes with that environment precludes the "historical" solution to this security problem; a national militia in the Swiss model or the system used in Vietnam during the war and today.

The country has 6.3 million men of military age that could be tapped if that solution were possible politically, but I don't think the political leadership in the country is really ready to take such a risk.

That means the only other option would be to declare a full state of emergency and either recruit heavily or start a draft. That then runs into cost issues and concerns of the military deciding to take over if the politicians aren't seen as getting the situation resolved.

Sad fact is that the only way to "finish this" is to drain the pond Al Shabaab lives in and kill it. That takes more "boots and bayonets" than the Kenyans have on hand.
 
Last Resort

Last Resort

Veteran Member
When I saw the line "147 killed," I thought it was a typo. Then I realized it wasn't. Those poor souls.

Just in case ANYONE had ANY doubt, this is a full-blown Islam vs. Christianity religious war. A lot of Muslims are trying to stay out of it, but not enough. And Kenya's stupid gun control laws are making it easy for the demons to slaughter innocents. If this, and the mall attack last year tell me anything, it's that pacifism is just as harmful to its practitioners as fanaticism is eventually to its adherents.

Christ knew when it was time to arm yourself, from Luke:

"King James Bible
Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one."

I'd rather be cold and naked with a weapon in hand, than warm and helpless.
 
H

Housecarl

On TB every waking moment
For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://www.dw.de/kenya-university-attack-kenya-has-learned-nothing/a-18359496

Terrorism

Kenya university attack: 'Kenya has learned nothing'

Al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for a deadly attack at Garissa University College in northeastern Kenya. Security experts say the country still lacks an effective terror response mechanism.

Date 02.04.2015
Author Asumpta Lattus

It is now 18 months since al-Shabab attacked the Westgate shopping mall in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, killing more than 60 people. This was followed by a series of attacks in other towns and cities, considered to be carried out in revenge for the Kenyan army presence in Somalia, where it is part of an AU force fighting al-Shabab. On Thursday (02.04.2015) al-Shabab claimed responsibility for an attack on Garissa University College in northeastern Kenya, near the border with Somalia. At least 15 people are reported to have been killed. For an assessment of Kenya's response to the terror threat, DW spoke to Peter Aling'o, office head and senior researcher with the Institute for Security Studies in Nairobi.

DW: Has Kenya learnt from Westgate how to respond to terror attacks?

Peter Aling'o: I think Kenya hasn't learnt anything at all in terms of how to respond to terror attacks. What we are seeing is a knee-jerk reaction that sends in security personnel in a manner that suggests they are not completely aware of what they are responding to. We need a closure in terms of lessons learnt but that has not been done. An effective response should also include the civilian component in terms of how civilians respond and react. Kenya has yet to learn, in my view, how to respond effectively to attacks of the magnitude that we have seen in the country since Westgate.

Reports say there was a warning issued some weeks ago that al-Shabab was planning to attack major universities. Why didn't the Kenyan authorities step up security? Why couldn't they hinder this attack?

This is the question that we ask. In the last month or so there has been quite a lot of information around in terms of the targets that are at high risk. These have included universities, with a number of them sending out [warning] notices to the university community and citizens at large about impending attacks. But you see, in Kenya, we never take things seriously. This is the reason why I think Kenya and the security agencies have been caught with their pants down once again. It's about planning and effectively deploying personnel. It's not just about numbers. It's also about effective utilization of available intelligence. This is not happening in the country and these are the gaps that al-Shabab is taking advantage of.

Is it true that Kenyan security agencies are not reacting to intelligence provided by Western nations?

We have asked this question a number of times including during the Westgate attack and also the attacks that happened in Mombasa, in Lamu. There were indications, and indeed this has been verified, that intelligence was available but nobody acted on it. And this is the question that we ask: Where is the coordination in terms of intelligence gathering and response? That has been the missing link and it is the link that is making Kenya extremely vulnerable.

How much international support is Kenya getting in the fight against al-Shabab?

I think there is a lot of support that Kenya gets. The question is: How effectively is Kenya utilizing this support? For example, there is a partnership with a number of foreign governments, including Canada and the US who conduct a lot of training of Kenyan security personnel in counter-terrorism measures. This happens all the time. We know the Americans and the British invest quite a lot of money in terms of helping Kenya to do this. We also must acknowledge that there are a number of problems in Kenya that hamper effective support and this issue is linked to corruption.

Is this attack likely to have an impact on the policies of the Kenyan government?

I think we will see some cosmetic changes but not in how Kenya addresses the real structural issues that make the country vulnerable to extremism and attacks. We heard the president address the nation and give assurances but he only spoke of increasing the numbers of security personnel. We need to have a proper policy dialogue that looks at the structural weaknesses within the security system in Kenya and within Kenyan society at large. This needs to include citizens so that there is an ongoing solution that is also owned by the Kenyan citizens.

Peter Aling'o is the office head and senior researcher with the Institute for Security Studies in Nairobi

Interview: Asumpta Lattus


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Housecarl

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Posted for fair use.....
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...abaab-gunmen-calmly-murdered-147-victims.html

‘They forced us to lie on floor and recite the Islamic creed to prove we were not Christian’: Survivors of Kenyan university massacre reveal terror as al-Shabaab gunmen calmly murdered 147 victims
Gunmen stormed Kenya's Garissa University College campus in dawn raid
The 147 death toll is the worst terror attack on Kenyan soil since 1998
Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the latest terrorist atrocity in Kenya
Kenya has offered £156,000 bounty for information on al-Shabaab leader
One terrorist was captured and four were killed following 13-hour firefight

By Darren Boyle and Jay Akbar For Mailonline

Published: 04:06 EST, 3 April 2015 | Updated: 04:11 EST, 3 April 2015

Gunman who murdered 147 people in Kenya's worst terrorist attack since 1998 ordered people to recite verses from the Koran at gunpoint to avoid being shot.

Survivors of the Garissa University murder said the killers stormed the campus at 5.30am yesterday morning and killed suspected Christians.

Nasir Abdurahman, who is a second year student at the university said he came face-to-face with the killers just minutes into the attack. The gunman forced him and his friends to the ground and issued a chilling ultimatum.

Mr Abdurahman told the Wall Street Journal: 'One gunman ordered us to lay down on the ground, and we did that. He asked us are you Muslims and I responded: "Yes. Please don't kill us, we are Muslims."

'He asked if we could recite the Shahada and I recited it loudly. My friends also recited the prayer loudly. He said: "You can go now".'

One of the terrorists was arrested several hours before the final shootout after he tried to sneak away from the university.

The 13-hour siege ended after Kenyan security forces stormed the campus, killing the four remaining terrorists. The killers 'exploded' when they were shot, due to suspected suicide vests.

Following yesterday's massacre, Kenyan troops have been deployed on the streets of Garissa, patrolling the university and preventing any further attacks on soft targets such as the hospital.

At the same time, relatives of some of the 147 victims have arrived in the town to identify their bodies.

Some of the survivors were airlifted overnight to Nairobi for specialist treatment as the Kenyan government announced a £145,000 reward for the capture of the atrocity's suspected mastermind.

The attack is believed to be the worst terrorist attack on Kenyan soil since the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi in 1998 which killed more than 200 people.

The terrorists stuck mid-way through Holy Week, the most solemn period in the Christian calendar. Last night, the Christian students were planning to celebrate the Last Supper in preparation for Good Friday.

Pictures on social media of one of the dorms showed bloodstained floors, bodies of male students and splintered wooden chairs.

One survivor told Kenyan journalist Peter Opondo: 'I took blood from my colleague who had been shot and smeared it on my face. When they came, they said this one is dead.'

Student Omar Ibrahim told News24 Kenya: 'I was in a group that was saved by the KDF (Kenya Defence Forces) just after 1pm.

'We saw many many bodies, some did not have heads. I don't know why someone would do such a thing.'

Eye-witness Collins Wetangula, the vice chairman of the student union, said he was preparing to take a shower when he heard gunshots coming from Tana dorm, which is home to both men and women, 150 yards away.

The campus has six dormitories and at least 887 students, he said.

He said that when he heard the gunshots he locked himself and three roommates in their room.

'All I could hear were footsteps and gunshots, nobody was screaming because they thought this would lead the gunmen to know where they are.

'The gunmen were saying sisi ni al-Shabaab (Swaihi for we are al-Shabaab).'

Mr Wetangula said he could hear the gunmen interrogating fellow students hiding inside their rooms about their religion.

He said: 'If you were a Christian you were shot on the spot. With each blast of the gun I thought I was going to die.'

The gunmen started to shoot rapidly and it was as if there was an exchange of fire, he said.

'The next thing, we saw people in military uniform through the window of the back of our rooms who identified themselves as the Kenyan military.'

The soldiers took him and approximately 20 others to safety. As they were running, al-Shabaab snipers on top of a three-storey building attempted to gun them down.

He added: 'We started running and bullets were whizzing past our heads and the soldiers told us to dive.'

Fellow student, Augustine Alanga, 21, described a panicked scene as gunshots rang out outside their dormitory.

He said he saw at least five heavily-armed terrorists wearing masks.

He said: 'I am just now recovering from the pain as I injured myself while trying to escape. I was running barefoot.'

He told journalists he crossed barbed-wire fencing to escape the massacre.

Mr Alanga said any students attending morning prayers at the university's mosque at 5.30am were not attacked.
 
H

Housecarl

On TB every waking moment
For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20150403/af--kenya-university_attack-8db9963006.html

Kenya attack survivor says gunmen had scouted the campus

Apr 3, 7:54 AM (ET)

(AP) Member of Kenya Defense Forces stand guard at the Garissa University College in...
Full Image

GARISSA, Kenya (AP) — The Islamic extremists who slaughtered 147 people at a college in Kenya as they shouted "God is great" appeared to have planned extensively, even targeting a site where Christians had gone to pray, survivors said Friday.

Police on Friday were at the campus of Garissa University College, taking fingerprints from the bodies of the four assailants and of the students and security officials who died, for thorough identification purposes. The northeastern Kenyan town lacks the facilities to store all the bodies.

In Nairobi, Kenya's capital, family members were lining up at a morgue where about 20 bodies had already been airlifted from Garissa, victims of the worst attack in Kenya since the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy by al-Qaida which killed more than 200 people. Screaming and crying relatives of the victims were assisted by Kenyan Red Cross staffers, who tried to console them.

One of the first things that the al-Shabab gunmen did when they assaulted the campus early Thursday, survivor Helen Titus said, was to head for a lecture hall where Christians were in early morning prayer. Al-Shabab is a Somalia-based extremist group with ties to al-Qaida.

(AP) Students get on a bus at gate of the Garissa University College in Garissa,...
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"They investigated our area. They knew everything," Helen Titus told The Associated Press at a hospital in Garissa where she was being treated for a bullet wound to the wrist. Officials said 79 people were wounded.

Titus, a 21-year-old English literature student, said she covered her face and hair with the blood of classmates and lay still at one point during al-Shabab's deadliest attack on Kenyan soil in hopes the Islamic extremist gunmen would think she was dead.

The gunmen also told students hiding in dormitories to come out, assuring them that they would not be killed, said Titus, who wore a patient's gown as she sat on a bench in the hospital yard.

"We just wondered whether to come out or not," she said. Many students did, whereupon the gunmen started shooting men, saying they would not kill "ladies," Titus said. But they also shot women and targeted Christians, said Titus, who is a Christian.

Esther Wanjiru said she was awake at the time of the attack. Asked if she lost anyone, she said: "My best friend."

(AP) A member of Kenya Defense Forces secures the area of the Garissa University College...
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Another survivor, Nina Kozel, said she was woken up by screaming and that many students escaped by sprinting to the fences and jumping over them. Some suffered bruises, she said. Many men were unable to escape, and hid in vain under beds and in closets in their rooms, according to Kozel.

"They were shot there and then," she said.

Those who surrendered were either selected for killing, or freed in some cases, apparently because they were Muslim, she said.

The killers shouted "God is great" in Arabic as they proceeded with the slaughter, she said.

Security forces stood guard Friday at the gate of the school. School slogans on the wall outside said "Oasis of Innovation" and "A World Class University of Technological Processes and Development."

(AP) Unidentified relatives grieve as they walk towards a center set up for relatives and...
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At one point, a group approached the college gate and was blocked by soldiers. Several women began shrieking and collapsed in apparent grief in the dust for several minutes. A bystander said the son of one of the women had died in the attack.

A small group of male demonstrators walked down a main road in Garissa with signs that read "We are against the killing of innocent Kenyans!!!! We are tired!!" and "Enough is enough. No more killing!! We are with you, our fellow Kenyans."

"We feel very sorry for them and we condemn the attack," demonstrator Abdullahi Muktar said of the victims.

Some surviving students awaited evacuation to Nairobi by plane from a nearby airstrip.

The masked attackers — strapped with explosives and armed with AK-47s — singled out non-Muslim students and then gunned them down without mercy, survivors said. The gunmen took dozens of hostages in a dormitory as they battled troops and police before the operation ended after about 13 hours, witnesses said.

Al-Shabab spokesman Ali Mohamud Rage said fighters the group was responsible for the attack. The al-Qaida-linked group has been blamed for a series of attacks in Kenya, including the siege at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi in 2013 that killed 67 people, as well as other violence in the north. The group has vowed to retaliate against Kenya for sending troops to Somalia in 2011 to fight the militants staging cross-border attacks and kidnappings.

Somali President Said Hassan Sheikh Mohamud called for stronger collaboration between Somalia and Kenya to defeat al-Shabab.

---

Odula reported from Nairobi, Kenya. Abdi Guled in Mogadishu, Somalia contributed to this report.
 
the watcher

the watcher

Inactive
Last Resort said:
When I saw the line "147 killed," I thought it was a typo. Then I realized it wasn't. Those poor souls.

Just in case ANYONE had ANY doubt, this is a full-blown Islam vs. Christianity religious war. A lot of Muslims are trying to stay out of it, but not enough. And Kenya's stupid gun control laws are making it easy for the demons to slaughter innocents. If this, and the mall attack last year tell me anything, it's that pacifism is just as harmful to its practitioners as fanaticism is eventually to its adherents.

Christ knew when it was time to arm yourself, from Luke:

"King James Bible
Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one."

I'd rather be cold and naked with a weapon in hand, than warm and helpless.
Click to expand...

This is the holy jihad I warned about a year ago. You mirrored my thoughts to a T. PC be damned.
 
P

Possible Impact

TB Fanatic
El_Grillo @El_Grillo1 · 1h
Former Garissa teacher identified as mastermind of Kenya terror attack;
was formerly member of Islamic Courts Union
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/World...attack/-/688340/2675320/-/jto2mw/-/index.html …




Former teacher led Kenya terror attack

By FRED MUKINDA Monitor Correspondent
Posted Saturday, April 4 2015 at 01:00
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/World...attack/-/688340/2675320/-/jto2mw/-/index.html

Reward. KShs20m (UShs640m) bounty has been placed on the fugitive, Mohamed Kuno.
(20,000,000 Kenyan Shillings equals $216,354.60 US Dollars)

Garissa.
A former teacher in Garissa, Kenya has been cited as the mastermind of
Thursday’s terrorist attack at a university college in the area.

A KShs20 million (UShs640 million) bounty has been placed on the fugitive,
Mohamed Kuno. He has been on the run since December last year, when
he was identified as the al-Shabaab commander who oversaw the killing of
58 Kenyans in Mandera.

The death toll in yesterday’s attack at the Garissa University College is 147.


According to a statement from the government, Kuno has three aliases —
Sheikh Mahamad, Dulyadin and Gamadhere.

Kuno, a Kenyan, moved to Somalia at the time of the Islamic Courts Union,
which later metamorphosed into al-Shabaab, and became part of it. He
uses his family members to carry out terrorist acts in northern Kenya.

Some sources named his associates as Adam Kuso, Khalid Dheere and
Mohamud Taro.

Juba region
The statement says Kuno is al-Shabaab’s leader for the Juba region,
Somalia, and is currently in charge of operations against Kenya. Juba
shares a vast border with Kenya, and touches Mandera, Garissa, Wajir
and Lamu counties.

“He commands the militia along the border and is responsible for cross-
border incursions in the country. In the recent past, he has intensified
attacks in northern Kenya and the Coast region, particularly Garissa,
Mandera and Lamu,” says the statement.

Gamadhere, as the terrorist leader is commonly known, was first brought
to the attention of Kenyans by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations
on December 17 last year.

​
At the time, the government offered KShs2 million to anybody who gave
information that would lead to the man’s arrest. It circulated his
photograph, alongside that of Ahmed Iman Ali, a terrorist from Majengo,
Nairobi.

“Gamadhere is believed to be very religious and has been a madrasa
(Islamic school) teacher for several years. He worked for Al-Haramain
Foundation between 1993 and 1995 before the institution was closed.
At the time, he was known as Sheikh Mahamad.

Islamic Courts Union
He later became a teacher and principal at Madrasa Najah in Garissa
from 1997 to 2000, where his extremist tendencies became more
manifested.

“He thereafter joined al-Shabaab after being motivated by the ideology
of the Islamic Courts Union to establish an Islamic statehood in Somalia,”
says the statement.

The document says most of his recruits are family members and former
students of Madrasa Najah.

He is also known to have an extensive terrorist network within Kenya,
particularly at the Dadaab refugee camp.​
 
D

Dozdoats

On TB every waking moment
The killers 'exploded' when they were shot

A potentially useful detail... any extra bulkiness may mean a suicide vest.
 
H

Housecarl

On TB every waking moment
For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/03/africa/kenya-garissa-university-attack/

Five arrested in deadly attack on Kenyan college

By Ralph Ellis, Ben Brumfield and Christian Purefoy, CNN
Updated 7:04 PM ET, Fri April 3, 2015

Garissa, Kenya (CNN)¡XKenyan police have arrested five suspects in connection with Thursday's attack at Garissa University College, Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery said Friday, according to CNN affiliate NTV.

Nkaissery told reporters the university will be able to confirm Saturday if everyone has been accounted for.

Thursday's attack by al-Shabaab militants killed 147 people, including 142 students, three security officers and two university security personnel. The attack left 104 people injured, including 19 who are in critical condition, Nkaissery said.

During search and recovery efforts on Friday, CNN witnessed one male who was not a student hiding under a bed. That male was taken into custody and was being treated as a suspect, sources close to the search told CNN.

The find sparked an additional search of the building. Sources said three people, all students, were found alive. A female student was found under a pile of bodies, another female student was hiding in a wardrobe and a male student was hiding in the bathroom, the sources confirmed to CNN.

Student Hellen Titus said she survived by fooling the attackers into thinking she was dead.

EXPAND IMAGE„è

After gunmen shot fellow students, she smeared their blood onto her body to make it seem she'd been shot, too, she told CNN on Friday at a makeshift center for evacuated students.

"In the time of shooting," she said, "they skipped me."

Most of the victims had been shot from behind, in the back of the head, a medic told CNN.

"They're facing down, always," a worker with St. John's ambulance service said Friday. "They're always facing down, and they're shot in the heads, around the back."

Al-Shabaab's long, bloody legacy with Kenya

Raging gunfire

Early Thursday, an explosion and gunfire cut through the morning quiet on the campus about 90 miles (145 kilometers) from Kenya's border with Somalia, tearing many students in dormitories out of their sleep.

"Never heard anything like this," journalist Dennis Okari from CNN affiliate NTV tweeted as he watched smoke rising over a student hostel.

Al-Shabaab gunmen had first stormed a Christian prayer service, where they killed some and took others hostage. Then they went across campus with them, shooting non-Muslims and sparing Muslims, a witness said.

Attack at Kenyan university

Attack at Kenyan university 18 photos
Students mourn in Garissa, Kenya, on Friday, April 3, a day after 147 people were killed when gunmen stormed Garissa University College, officials said. The Somalia-based Al-Shabaab militant group claimed responsibility for the assault.
Students get on a bus at the gate of Garissa University College on April 3.
Students listen to an address by Joseph Nkaissery, Kenya's interior minister, on April 3. He vowed that the country would not bow to terrorist threats.
A Kenyan soldier stands guard in Garissa on Thursday, April 2.
A woman is helped away from the building where she had been held hostage at the school on April 2.
A student hostage is escorted out of the school after troops ended the gunmen's siege on April 2.
Kenyan soldiers take cover as heavy gunfire continues in front of the school on April 2.
Kenyan soldiers take cover as shots are fired in front of the university on April 2.
A local resident shows a bullet allegedly from the militants in front of the school.
Members of the Kenyan Red Cross gather outside a hospital in Nairobi on April 2 to receive victims of the attack.
Kenyan soldiers stand guard in front of the school on April 2.
A Kenyan soldier takes cover as shots are fired in front of the school on April 2.
Students take shelter in a vehicle after fleeing the attack.
Students step out of a house in Garissa where they sought refuge after escaping the attack.
Police officers take positions outside the school as an ambulance carries victims to a hospital in Garissa.
Students leave a house where they had taken shelter on April 2.

Local residents donate blood at a hospital in Garissa on April 2.
Kenyan police take cover outside the school during the attack.

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EXPAND GALLERY„è

They headed for the hostels.

Student Japhet Mwala lay in her bed. "We were sleeping when we heard a loud explosion that was followed by gunshots, and everyone started running for safety," she told Agence France-Presse.

Awaking to terror: 'I am lucky to be alive'

"There are those who were not able to leave the hostels where the gunmen headed and started firing. I am lucky to be alive because I jumped through the fence with other students," she said.

Students ran -- some crawled -- away from the gunfire, Okari said. At one point, the gunmen pinned down a building where 360 students lived, Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery said.

Okari took cover outside the campus and listened to explosions and gunfire for four hours. Kenyan security forces moved in and killed four gunmen.

Porous border

Somali terror group Al-Shabaab, an al Qaeda affiliate, claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Interior Ministry has posted a "most wanted" notice for a man in connection with it. It offered a reward of 20 million Kenyan shillings, about $215,000, for Mohamed Mohamud, who goes by the aliases Dulyadin and Gamadhere.

The post does not say what role the man may have played.

Kenyan police are circulating "Wanted Dead or Alive" posters featuring eight terror suspects who are wanted in separate attacks in Kenya, the Interior Ministry said. Police are offering a bounty of more than $210,000 for the suspects, the Ministry said via Twitter.
 
H

Housecarl

On TB every waking moment
For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://www.smh.com.au/world/grief-t...iversity-massacre-emerge-20150404-1mehhc.html

Grief turns to anger as details of Kenya university massacre emerge

Date April 4, 2015 - 12:37PM
Edith Honan

Garissa, Kenya: The death toll in an assault by Somali militants on a Kenyan university is likely to climb above 147, a government source and media said on Friday, as anger grew among residents over what they say was a government failure to prevent bloodshed.

Strapped with explosives, masked al Shabaab gunmen stormed the Garissa University College campus, some 200 km (120 miles) from the Somali border, in a pre-dawn rampage on Thursday.

Tossing grenades and spraying bullets at cowering students, the attackers initially killed indiscriminately. But they later freed some Muslims and instead targeted Christian students during a siege that lasted about 15 hours.

Survivors of the Garissa attack spoke of merciless executions by the attackers, who stalked classrooms and dormitories hunting for non-Muslim students.

Reuben Mwavita, 21, a student, said he saw three female students kneeling in front of the gunmen, begging for mercy.

"The mistake they made was to say 'Jesus, please save us', because that is when they were immediately shot," Mwavita said.

Some students were killed as they spoke to their parents on the telephone, having been ordered to call with messages from the four gunmen that their aim was to force Kenyan troops to leave Somalia, a senior Kenyan government source told The Telegraph of London.

"This is the level of depravity that we are dealing with. It is something beyond the comprehension of anyone normal like you or I," the source, who spoke anonymously, said.

"These are not people who can be reasoned with, only force can stop them."

Anger over the massacre was compounded by the fact there were warnings last week that an attack on a university was imminent.

Five people have been arrested in connection with the attack, CNN reported on Friday, citing Kenyan Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery.

Officials said almost 150 people died, with at least 79 wounded, many critically. But with an uncertain number of students and staff still missing, the casualties may yet mount.

Outside the university gates, a throng of veiled women clung to the hope that missing people would still turn up alive.

The violence will heap further pressure on President Uhur Kenyatta, who has struggled to stop frequent militant gun and grenade attacks that have dented Kenya's image abroad and brought the country's vital tourism industry to its knees.

US President Obama will make a long-awaited return to Kenya this July, visiting his father's homeland for the first time since becoming US president.

"I know firsthand the extraordinary resilience and fundamental decency of the people of Kenya. So I know that the people of Garissa and all of Kenya will grieve but their determination to achieve a better and more secure future will not be deterred," Mr Obama said.

More than 400 people have been killed by al Qaeda-allied al Shabaab in the east African nation since Kenyatta took office in April 2013, including some 67 people who died in a blitz on a shopping mall in the capital Nairobi in September of that year.

Al Shabaab says its recent wave of attacks are retribution for Kenya sending troops into Somalia to fight the group alongside other African Union peacekeepers.

Within hours of the attack, Kenya put up a 20 million shillings ($215,000) reward for the arrest of Mohamed Mohamud, a former Garissa teacher labelled "Most Wanted" in a government poster and linked by Kenyan media to two separate al Shabaab attacks in the neighbouring Mandera region last year.

The government also imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew on Garissa, Mandera and two other crime-ridden regions near the porous border with Somalia.

However, diplomats and analysts say the move effectively concedes the government cannot control those areas, widely seen as Kenya's soft underbelly.

Reuters, AFP, Telegraph, London
 
H

Housecarl

On TB every waking moment
For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...96e5c0-da1c-11e4-b3f2-607bd612aeac_story.html

White House officials defend Somalia strategy as counterterrorism model
By Greg Jaffe April 3 at 8:35 PM 

President Obama has cited the battle against al-Shabab militants in Somalia as a model of success for his relatively low-investment, light-footprint approach to counterterrorism.

By some measures, it has paid dividends. U.S. drones have killed several of the Islamist group’s leaders, including two top planners in just the past month, a senior administration official said Friday. African Union troops backed by the United States have forced al-Shabab fighters to flee huge swaths of territory.

But this week’s massacre of 148 people at Garissa University College, the deadliest terrorist attack on Kenyan soil in two decades, demonstrates the limits of the administration’s approach and the difficulty of producing lasting victories over resilient enemies.

Only last fall, Obama was touting his counterterrorism strategy in the region as one that “we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years.”

The collapse of the American-backed government in Yemen forced the Pentagon last month to pull its Special Operations forces from the country. The chaos in Yemen and the absence of an effective partner has essentially halted U.S. counterterrorism operations against al-Qaeda’s affiliate there.

In Somalia and neighboring Kenya, the record is less clear. Despite this week’s killings, senior administration officials characterized their campaign against al-Shabab as highly effective. The organization, a onetime youth militia that began affiliating with al-Qaeda in the mid-2000s, once controlled virtually all of southern Somalia but has lost more than 75 percent of its territory in recent years.

Its grip on Kismayo, where it controlled the lucrative port, had been broken, robbing it of a key source of revenue. These days, the group’s finances have been drained.

This week’s vicious killings in Kenya, carried out by only a small team of masked gunmen, were cited by White House officials as further evidence of the group’s inevitable demise.

“They are desperate,” said the senior administration official, who was authorized to speak only on the condition of anonymity. “And as much as we hate to think about it, this is what desperate groups do. They try to have smaller teams go out and [conduct] higher-impact operations.”

But analysts who follow al-Shabab’s activities said the recent attacks demonstrate how difficult it is to destroy militant groups in places such as Somalia, where decades of war and famine have created vast, chaotic and largely ungovernable areas. After troops from a coalition of countries acting under the banner of the African Union dislodged al-Shabab from the area it controlled, ill-disciplined militia forces filled the vacuum. Kenya’s participation in the African Union mission has made it a target for reprisal attacks.

“There’s no question that there was not an effective plan to win the peace after winning the war,” said Kenneth Menkhaus, an expert on Somalia and a professor at Davidson College. “Now, who’s to blame for that is another matter.”

Some have criticized the international community for its failure to deliver the money and support the fledgling Somali government needed to function, Menkhaus said. Other experts contended that the government’s corruption and incompetence had caused potential backers in the West to pull their support.

Al-Shabab’s brutal rule gave way to chaos and crime. Clan-based militia forces, which took over territory vacated by al-Shabab, began taking land from villagers. “They made things worse,” Menkhaus said. “The area became less secure after al-Shabab left. The reality is that there is only so much you can do if the government is pocketing all the money and not following through.”

White House officials have counseled patience, noting that the reconstituted Somali government is not even three years old. “This is still a relatively new project,” said the senior administration official.

The White House’s approach reflects Obama’s firm belief that outside military forces can’t compel change in troubled parts of the world. “For a society to function long term, the people themselves have to make decisions about how they are going to live together,” Obama said last August in an interview with the New York Times.

The United States can offer advice, aid and support, “but we can’t do it for them,” Obama added.

That philosophy has guided Obama’s relatively light-footprint approach in places as diverse as Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan and Somalia.

Instead of deploying large formations of American ground troops, as he did in Afghanistan during the first years of his presidency, Obama has increasingly relied on small Special Operations teams to advise local troops and conduct targeted raids. In Somalia, the United States maintains a small military coordination cell that advises Somali and African Union forces, which have received about $1 billion in training, equipment and assistance since 2007.

In the early days of the Obama administration, senior officials in the White House and Pentagon debated whether to launch airstrikes against al-Shabab training camps. Some administration officials were skeptical that the group intended to strike U.S. or European targets.

Since 2011, as al-Shabab’s affiliation with al-Qaeda deepened, the president has periodically authorized strikes against senior al-Shabab leaders who U.S. intelligence officials have said are planning attacks on U.S. soil. “There have been a series of them that have definitely degraded [al-Shabab] in Somalia,” said the senior administration official.

The White House has supplemented the military training and targeted strikes with modest aid programs and efforts to undermine the appeal of extremist groups.

In a country as large and troubled as Somalia, stability and effective governance inevitably will be slow in coming. There are only about 22,000 African Union troops in the country, which has a coastline roughly as long as the U.S. Eastern Seaboard. “People look at a map and they don’t realize the tyranny of distance and size there,” said the senior administration official. “These rebuilding efforts take time.”

Some critics said that the international community’s insufficient response had allowed al-Shabab to survive. “Al-Shabab is not defeated, it has just changed,” said J. Peter Pham, director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council. Instead of trying to hold territory, like an army or militia, it functions today almost entirely as a regional terrorist group.

“Arguably, their terror attacks have gone up as they lost territory,” Pham said.

White House officials said such an assessment overstates the group’s strength. “This is a group that in its heyday attracted lots of foreigners, to include Westerners,” said the senior administration official. The group’s ability to rally foreign recruits has been badly damaged, the official said.

“We saw the attack in Garissa earlier this week,” he said. “But we haven’t seen the group . . . become the threat that many people feared. It is still our assessment that al-Shabab doesn’t pose a direct threat to the U.S. and the West.”


Greg Jaffe covers the White House for The Washington Post, where he has been since March 2009.
 
V

vestige

Deceased
"The violence will heap further pressure on President Uhur Kenyatta, who has struggled to stop frequent militant gun and grenade attacks that have dented Kenya's image abroad and brought the country's vital tourism industry to its knees.

US President Obama will make a long-awaited return to Kenya this July, visiting his father's homeland for the first time since becoming US president."

Maybe the CIC can talk with al-Shabab while he is there and they will feel the love.
 
Bubble Head

Bubble Head

Has No Life - Lives on TB
vestige said:
"The violence will heap further pressure on President Uhur Kenyatta, who has struggled to stop frequent militant gun and grenade attacks that have dented Kenya's image abroad and brought the country's vital tourism industry to its knees.

US President Obama will make a long-awaited return to Kenya this July, visiting his father's homeland for the first time since becoming US president."

Maybe the CIC can talk with al-Shabab while he is there and they will feel the love.
Click to expand...
One can only hope the CIC is blissfully reunited with his fathers work and al-Shabab.
 
Lilbitsnana

Lilbitsnana

On TB every waking moment
Conflict News @rConflictNews · 7h 7 hours ago

BREAKING: Kenyan medical staff say survivor of school killings is found Saturday, 2 days after attack - AP
 
Lilbitsnana

Lilbitsnana

On TB every waking moment
Conflict News @rConflictNews · 6h 6 hours ago

BREAKING: Somali extremists Al-Shabab warn of more attacks in Kenya like the assault on Garissa college - AP
 
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