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Kenya counts the cost of Garissa attack


The number of people killed by al-Shabab militants in an attack on a university in north-eastern Kenya has risen to 147.

Government officials say the operation to secure the Garissa University College campus is now over, with all four attackers killed.

Some 587 students escaped, 79 of whom were injured.

The gunmen were wearing suicide vests, according to reports, and were armed with AK-47s.

Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery says the militants exploded "like bombs" as the siege ended. Some officers were wounded by shrapnel.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the attack and said the UN was ready to help Kenya prevent and counter terrorism and violent extremism.

The United States said it was offering Nairobi assistance to take on al-Shabab militants which claimed responsibility for the attack and would continue to work with others in the region to take on the group.

The Kenyan government has named Mohamed Kuno, a high-ranking al-Shabab official, as the mastermind of the attack.

A BBC Somali Service reporter said Kuno was headmaster at an Islamic school in Garissa before he quit in 2007.