At least 70 Kenyan students were killed Thursday when Somalia's al-Shabaab group attacked the Garissa University College, the interior minister said. Some of them were beheaded, according to the survivors of the attack.
At least 79 people were injured, Interior Minister Joseph Nkaiserry said. The minister added, that about 500 out of 815 students were accounted for.
Earlier in the day, several attackers broke into the university and shot the guards.
Kenyan security forces neutralized two terrorists behind the Thursday attack on Kenyan Garissa University, near the Somalian border, the country's interior ministry said.
See how dangerously exposed our officers are. Taking cover, pursuing attackers with NO protective gear #GarissaAttack pic.twitter.com/gqNbnGdcMw
— Kenya West© (@KinyanBoy) April 2, 2015
#Kenya army tank drives towards #Garissa university, #AlShabaab gunmen still inside holding hostages. #GarissaAttack pic.twitter.com/9lpOzjUaOe
— Live From Mogadishu (@Daudoo) April 2, 2015
Earlier reports suggested that Kenyan authorities had announced a reward of $215,000 for any information about Mohamed Mohamud, or Mohamed Kuno, who was considered the main suspect in the Garissa attack.
#Kenya's government has named the alleged mastermind of the #GarissaAttack. With a bounty of around $215,000. pic.twitter.com/wrJvaAN9vO
— Rachael Akidi (@rakidi) April 2, 2015
Kuno, also known as Sheikh Mohamed, is the leader of al-Shabaab forces in the Juba Region of Somalia on the border with Kenya. He is responsible for a bus attack in the Kenyan city of Madera that killed 28 people in November, 2014.
The attackers have reportedly divided the students by religion, released 15 Muslims and took Christian students hostage.
Al-Shabaab is a Somalia-based militant group linked to al-Qaeda. In 2011, Kenya declared war on al-Shabaab after a series of kidnappings organized by the group. Since then, the country's northeast has seen a number of terror attacks by the insurgent group.
