AL-AZHAR CONDEMNS GRUESOME KENYA MASSACRE

A relative is assisted by Red Cross staff as bodies of the students killed in an attack by gunmen on Garissa University arrive in Nairobi. (Photo: Reuters/Herman Kariuki) — **A relative is assisted by Red Cross staff as bodies of the students killed in an attack by gunmen on Garissa University arrive in Nairobi.** (Photo: Reuters/Herman Kariuki)

Cairo, 17 Jumadil Akhir 1436/6 April 2015 (MINA) – The Cairo-based top Sunni Muslim body Al-Azhar on Saturday condemned the massacre of nearly 150 people at Kenya’s Garissa University by Somalia’s Shebab Islamists.

Four militants from the al-Qaida-linked group killed 148 people, 142 of them students, and wounded at least 79 at Garissa university after a day-long siege on Thursday, Nahar Net quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

The militants spared Muslim students but taunted Christians and other hostages before killing them, survivors said.

“Al-Azhar condemns the terrorist act committed by Somalia’s Shebab terrorist group in the Kenyan university of Garissa that left about 150 victims, and wounded tens of innocent students,” the prestigious seat of Sunni Islamic learning said in a statement on its Facebook page.

The attack, Kenya’s deadliest since the 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, sparked international outrage, with Pope Francis condemning the massacre as an act of “senseless brutality.” (T/P001/P3)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)