Suicide car bomber kills 12 in Nigeria church

YELWA: A suicide bomber drove
a car full of explosives into a
church in northern Nigeria
yesterday, killing 12 people in
the latest deadly attack on
Christian worshippers,
witnesses said.
Security forces at a road
block nearby said the bomber
forced his car through the
checkpoint and drove into the
church in Yelwa, on the
outskirts of the city of Bauchi.
A Reuters reporter at the
scene counted 12 bodies being
pulled from the building.
“I had just left after the
morning service and was out
of the church when I heard a
loud explosion. I rushed back
and there were dozens of
people lying in pools of blood,”
said Aliku Jon, a mechanic,
adding that at least six people
died instantly. “Many were
injured including two police
officers.”
It was not clear who was
responsible for the attack,
although churches have been
targeted this year by militant
Islamist group Boko Haram –
which has increasingly used
suicide bombers.
“I was just in the area when I
heard a huge blast. The sound
was so loud, my ears are still
ringing,” said Samuel Etudu,
who was outside the church
when the explosion happened.
Boko Haram, which says it is
fighting to reinstate an
ancient Islamic caliphate in
northern Nigeria that would
impose stricter sharia law, has
been blamed for hundreds of
killings in bomb or gun attacks
over the past two years.
It has become the number one
security threat in Nigeria,
Africa’s top oil producer, and
has linked up with other
Islamist groups in the region
such as al Qaeda’s north
African wing. However its
sphere of influence is far from
oil-producing facilities in the
south of the country.
The sect had been less active
in recent weeks, as a security
crackdown in the north led to
the deaths and arrests of
several commanders.
Gunmen killed at least 15
people and wounded many
more on April 29 in an attack
on a university theatre being
used by Christian worshippers
in Kano, northern Nigeria’s
biggest city.
Such attacks on Christians
seem aimed at igniting
sectarian strife in a country
of 160 million split about
evenly between Muslims and
Christians.
The US Justice Department is
pressing the US State
Department to label Boko
Haram a “foreign terrorist
organization”, a move the
Nigerian government does not
support because it thinks it
would do little to resolve the
conflict.
Underscoring the growing
threat Islamists pose to
Western interests, a German
man held hostage in northern
Nigeria by a group linked to al
Qaeda was killed on Thursday
during a raid by Nigerian
forces.
Boko Haram have denied
responsibility for the
kidnapping, but security
forces suspect it was carried
out by a faction of the sect.
- Reuters
Source: freemalaysiatoday.com