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| A woman cries after she viewed the body of a relative killed in Thursday's attack on a university, at Chiromo funeral home, Nairobi, Kenya, Saturday, April 4, 2015. Al-Shabab gunmen rampaged through a university in northeastern Kenya at dawn Thursday, killing scores of people in the group's deadliest attack in the East African country. Four militants were slain by security forces to end the siege just after dusk. |
GARISSA, Kenya
(AP) -- Somalia's Islamic extremist group al-Shabab warned Saturday of
more attacks in Kenya like the assault on Garissa University College
that killed 148 people.
"Kenyan cities will run red with blood," said al-Shabab according to the SITE intelligence monitoring group.
The
Islamic militants said the attack on Garissa college was in retaliation
for killings carried out by Kenyan troops fighting the rebels in
Somalia.
"No amount of precaution or safety
measures will be able to guarantee your safety, thwart another attack or
prevent another bloodbath," said al-Shabab.
Following the extremists' threats, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta vowed to take harsh measures against the Islamic militants.
In
a nationally televised address, Kenyatta said his administration "shall
respond in the severest ways possible" to the Garissa attack, which
occurred Thursday when four gunmen entered a campus and slaughtered
students. The military moved in hours later and the gunmen were killed.
"We
will fight terrorism to the end," said Kenyatta. "I guarantee that my
administration shall respond in the fiercest way possible."
Kenyatta
said the country's "security forces are pursuing the remaining
accomplices. We will bring all of them to justice ... We are also in
active pursuit of the mastermind (of the Garissa attack) and have placed
a reward for his capture," said Kenyatta, who declared 3 days of
national mourning.
Five people have been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the Garissa attack, a Kenyan official said.
Kenyan
security agencies arrested three people trying to cross into Somalia,
said Interior Ministry spokesman Mwenda Njoka in a Twitter post. He said
the three are associates of Mohamed Mohamud, also known as Dulyadin
Gamadhere, a former teacher at a Kenyan Madrassa Islamic school who
authorities say coordinated the Garissa attack. Kenyan authorities have
put a $220,000 bounty for information leading to Gamadhere's arrest.
Two other suspects were arrested at Garissa college.
A survivor of the killings at Garissa University College was found on Saturday, two days after the attack.
Cynthia
Cheroitich, 19, told The Associated Press from her hospital gurney that
she hid in a wardrobe and covered herself with clothes, refusing to
emerge even when some of her classmates came out of hiding when demanded
by the gunmen.
She was rescued shortly before 10 a.m., according to Kenyan officials.
Cheroitich
said she didn't believe that rescuers urging her to come out of her
hiding place were there to help, suspecting at first that they were
militants.
"How do I know that you are the Kenyan police?" she said she asked them.
Only when Kenyan security forces had one of her teachers appeal to her did she come out, she said.
"I was just praying to my God," Cheroitich, a Christian, said of her ordeal.
Cheroitich appeared tired and thirsty, sipping on yoghurt and a soft drink, but otherwise seemed in good health.
She said she drank body lotion because she was so thirsty and hungry while in hiding.
Authorities
displayed the bodies of the alleged attackers before about 2,000 people
in a large open area in central Garissa. The bodies lay on the bed of a
pickup truck that drove slowly past the crowd, which broke into a run
in pursuit. Soldiers monitored the crowd. There was shouting and clouds
of dust rose as the vehicle left the area.
Spectator
Yusuf Mohamed applauded the display, saying authorities wanted to "win
the hearts of the people" and clear any doubts that the attackers had
been killed.
Kenyan authorities initially said
the attackers had been strapped with explosives that went off like
bombs when they were shot, but investigators later said there were no
suicide vests. The four bodies shown Saturday had wounds but were
intact.
The bodies of many of those killed in
Garissa have been transported to the capital, Nairobi, where grieving
family members gathered to view the remains.
Thirteen
buses left Garissa Saturday afternoon carrying hundreds of students who
survived the attack. The buses, under armed escort, took the survivors
to their home areas, said officials. Three of the buses arrived in the
capital Nairobi at night.
