Iran condemns al-Shabab terrorist attack in Kenya

The Islamic Republic of Iran extends condolences to the Kenyan government and nation, especially to the bereaved families of the victims of the terrorist attack, said Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham on Friday.

On Thursday, al-Shabab terrorists stormed the Garissa University College campus, located some 150 kilometers (90 miles) from the border with Somalia, and took hundreds of students hostage.

According to reports, the terrorist attack left 148 students and security forces dead and 79 others injured.

The Kenyan troops killed all the four assailants during their 15-hour operation and rescued 587 of the hostages, the reports added.

Following the incident, Kenya’s Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery said his country will continue to fight al-Shabab terrorist group.

“Kenya’s government will not be intimidated by the terrorists who have made killing innocent people a way to humiliate the government,” he said, adding, “We shall win this war against our enemies.”

It was the deadliest terrorist attack in Kenya since the bomb blast at the US embassy in the Kenyan capital city of Nairobi in 1998.

Al-Shabab terrorist group also carried out the Westgate shopping mall massacre in Nairobi in September 2013, when four gunmen killed at least 67 people in a four-day-long siege.

Kenya currently has over 3,000 soldiers stationed in southern Somalia, where they have been battling al-Shabab. Nairobi sent troops into Somalia in late 2011 after the militant group carried out a series of raids inside Kenya.

Somalia has been the scene of deadly clashes between government forces and al-Shabab since 2006.

The militants have been pushed out of Mogadishu and other major cities by government forces and the African Union Mission in Somalia, which is largely made up of troops from Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Burundi, Djibouti, and Sierra Leone.