Al-Shabab militants kill 147 at university in Kenya

GARISSA, Kenya -- Al-Shabab gunmen rampaged through a university in northeastern Kenya at dawn Thursday, killing 147 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.

The masked attackers armed with AK-47s singled out non-Muslim students at Garissa University College and gunned them down without mercy, survivors said. Others ran for their lives with bullets whistling through the air.

The men took dozens of hostages in a dormitory for several hours as they battled troops and police before the operation was ended after about 13 hours, witnesses said.

Al-Shabab spokesman Ali Mohamud Rage said fighters from the Somalia-based extremist group were responsible for the bloodshed. 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.

Most of the 147 dead were students, but two security guards, one police officer and one soldier also were killed in the attack, Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery said. At least 79 people were wounded at the school 90 miles from the Somali border, Nkaissery said.

One suspected extremist was arrested as he tried to flee, Nkaissery told a news conference in Nairobi. Police identified a possible mastermind of the attack as Mohammed Mohamud, who is alleged to lead al-Shabab's cross-border raids into Kenya, and they posted a $220,000 bounty for him.