Netanyahu calls Kenyan president after attack, offers assistance

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reached out to Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, offering support to the East African leader following a devastating terrorist attack which claimed the lives of nearly 150 people.

Netanyahu spoke with Kenyatta, extending his condolences on behalf of the citizens of Israel following the brutal assault on non-Muslim university students on Thursday by jihadist gunmen that left 148 people dead.

“We stand together in the fight against terrorism and we will offer you any assistance required,” Netanyahu said Sunday evening, according to a statement released the Prime Minister’s Office.

The attack, carried out by the Somali-based al-Qaeda affiliated al-Shabab group, saw terrorists armed with automatic weapons and explosives specifically target and murder non-Muslim students on the campus of Garissa University in eastern Kenya, approximately 370 kilometers (230 miles) from the capital city of Nairobi.

Kenyan intelligence and security forces were heavily criticized in the wake of the tragedy, accused of ignoring signs ahead of the attack. It took security forces nearly seven hours to reach the campus and neutralize the four gunmen.

At least 79 people were also wounded in the assault, which began when the first grenades were used before dawn to blast open the gates of the university, near the lawless border with war-torn Somalia.

In the final hour before darkness fell, Kenyan troops stormed the student dormitory where the gunmen were holed up as explosions and heavy gunfire rang out. Troops then continued to search the campus for any possible insurgents.

It was the worst attack in Kenya since the 1998 bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi by al-Qaeda, when 213 people were killed by a huge truck bomb.

The al-Shabab group responsible for the attack was also behind the Westgate shopping mall massacre in Nairobi in September 2013, when four gunmen killed at least 67 people in a four-day siege.

In a White House statement, the United States condemned “in the strongest terms” the terrorist attack “against the innocent men and women” of Garissa University College.

“The United States is providing assistance to the Kenyan government, and we will continue to partner with them as well as with others in the region to take on the terrorist group al-Shabab,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said.

“The United States stands with the people of Kenya, who will not be intimidated by such cowardly attacks,” he added.

Nigeria’s outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan also condemned Thursday’s attack, describing it as “heinous” and “barbaric”.

A statement from Jonathan’s office said the president “utterly condemns the deliberate targeting of innocent persons, schools and other soft targets by terrorists.”

“Such atrocious, despicable and barbaric acts of violence ought to have no place in any civilized society,” it said.

Jonathan, who was defeated by Muhammadu Buhari in this weekend’s presidential election, said he would continue to work with Kenya, other African countries and the international community “to rid the world of all terrorist groups.”

Nigeria, with the support of troops from Chad, Cameroon and Niger, is battling an insurgency by Boko Haram Islamists which has claimed at least 13,000 lives since it began in northeast Nigeria in 2009.