Garissa, Kenya---The bodies of dozens of students massacred by Somalia's Shebab Islamists at a Kenyan university arrived in the capital Friday, as grieving relatives faced a desperate wait to receive the remains of their loved ones.
The day-long siege of Garissa University in which 147 people, mostly students, were killed was Kenya's deadliest attack since the 1998 bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi, and the bloodiest ever by the Al-Qaeda-affiliated militants.
The Kenyan government, however, vowed that it would not be "intimidated".
Survivors recounted how the masked gunmen taunted students before killing them, including forcing them to phone their parents to urge them to call for Kenyan troops to leave Somalia -- before shooting them anyway.
As the gunmen prowled university rooms hunting down more people to kill, some students smeared blood from their dead friends over their bodies to pretend they too had been shot.
"There were bodies everywhere in execution lines, we saw people whose heads had been blown off, bullet wounds everywhere, it was a grisly mess," said Reuben Nyaora, an aid worker who helped the wounded.
Others appeared to have been killed by knives.
The day-long seige ended with four gunmen being killed in a hail of heavy gunfire, and one suspect reportedly arrested. At least 79 people were also wounded in the attack on the campus, which lies near the border with Somalia.
On Friday, a huge crowd of shocked and traumatised survivors and relatives of those killed or missing gathered at the university gate.
"I am so worried, I had a son who was among the students trapped inside the college, and since yesterday I have heard nothing," said Habel Mutinda, an elderly man, his face streaming with tears.
"I tried to identify his body among those killed... I have to do that before the body goes bad in the heat."
- Kenya 'will fight back' -
Emergency workers set about collecting the bodies, while Kenyan soldiers patrolled the campus.
Visiting the scene of the carnage, Kenya's Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery vowed his country would not give in to the Shebab, who despite losing territory inside Somalia have stepped up operations in Kenya.
"Kenya's government will not be intimidated by the terrorists who have made killing innocent people a way to humiliate the government," he told reporters, promising that the government would "fight back".
AFP
