Four gunmen belonging to the Al-Shabab terrorist group entered the campus of a Chirstian university in Kenya and opened fire indiscriminately, killing at least 147 faculty and students while taking dozens of hostages.

It is the worst terror attack in Kenya since the bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi in 1999.

Al-Shabab is targeting Kenya because the government has dispatched troops to their base in Somalia.

Officials say the death toll is likely to rise significantly given the numbers of people who are still missing.

Reuters:

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.

Anger over the massacre was compounded by the fact there were warnings last week that an attack on a university was imminent. Local residents accused the authorities of doing little to boost security in this little developed region.

"It's because of laxity by the government that these things are happening. For something like this to happen when there are those rumors is unacceptable," said Mohamed Salat, 47, a Somali Kenyan businessman.

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.

"Yes, there is a likelihood of numbers going up," said one government source dealing with the Garissa attack.

Kenya's biggest-selling Daily Nation newspaper, citing sources, said the death toll would be significantly higher.

 

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

"We are here waiting for news if we can find him, dead or alive," said Barey Bare, 36, referring to her cousin who worked as a clerk at the university and has been missing since Thursday.

The violence will heap further pressure on President Uhuru 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.

Authorities recieved specific intel about an attack on a "major university" in the region:

As of last week authorities had apparently warned of a potential terror attack targeting campuses, according to a flyer posted at the University of Nairobi and other schools at the capital, more than 200 miles away from Garissa.

"Intelligence reports indicate that the [al-Shabab] terror group is planning retaliatory attacks on vital installations in Nairobi including a major university," the March 25 flyer said. It asked all students and staff there to "continue being vigilant and diligent while in the University and other crowded places."

Other reports say that the terrorists let Muslims go, but murdered the Christians while they were lying face down. 

Kenya has a terrible security problem along its border with Somalia, and doesn't have the resources to fix it. The area is almost like a no-man's land as Al-Shabab inflitrates the country at will. 

Unless the coalition of African nations can defeat the terrorists in Somalia, these kinds of attacks will almost certainly continue.