Blasts rock two churches in north Nigeria's Bauchi

KANO, Nigeria (Reuters) - Explosions struck two churches in the northern Nigerian city of Bauchi on Sunday, witnesses said, destroying one of them completely, although there were no immediate reports of casualties.
Bauchi township resident Garbi Ali said he heard two explosions at around 2 a.m. on Sunday, before anyone would be likely to be in church, and went out to investigate.
"One of the churches was at the railway line. They just destroyed the gate. But the other one at Fadama was completely destroyed and the roof collapsed," he told Reuters by telephone, adding that he did not think there were any casualties.
(Reporting by Mike Oboh; writing by Tim Cocks; editing by David Stamp)

Explosions rock Nigeria's Kano, at least six killed

• Enlarge PhotoSmoke rises from the police headquarters as people run for safety in Nigeria's northern city of Kano January 20, 2012. At least six people were killed in a string of bomb blasts on Friday in Nigeria's second city Kano and the authorities imposed a curfew across the city, which has been plagued by an insurgency led by the Islamist sect Boko Haram. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the apparently coordinated attacks. REUTERS/Stringer

KANO, Nigeria (Reuters) - At least six people were killed in a string of bomb blasts on Friday in Nigeria's second city Kano and the authorities imposed a curfew across the city, which has been plagued by an insurgency led by the Islamist sect Boko Haram.
Smoke billowed from the police headquarters for the north in Kano after one blast blew out its windows, collapsed its roof and triggered a blaze that firefighters struggled to control.
A Reuters reporter counted three bodies at the scene and three more at the local passport office, which was surrounded by flaming debris.
Some residents ran around shouting and screaming following the attacks. There were at least four other explosions across the city in quick succession.
"I was on the roadside and I just heard a 'Boom!'. As I came back, I saw the building of the police zonal headquarters crashing down and I ran for my life," said local man Andrew Samuel.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the apparently coordinated attacks, which prompted the government to announce a dusk-to-dawn curfew.
Kano, like other northern cities in Nigeria, has been plagued by an insurgency led by Islamist sect Boko Haram, blamed for scores of bombings and shootings against mostly government targets that are growing in scale and sophistication.
Boko Haram became active around 2003 and is concentrated in the northern states of Yobe, Kano, Bauchi, Borno and Kaduna.
Boko Haram, which in the Hausa language of northern Nigeria means "Western education is sinful," is loosely modelled on the Taliban movement in Afghanistan.
The group considers all who do not follow its strict ideology as infidels, whether they be Christian or Muslim. It demands the adoption of sharia, Islamic law, in all of Nigeria.
FLAMES AND SMOKE
Witnesses said the bomber of the police headquarters, which covers most of northern Nigeria, pulled up at the building on a motorbike then got off and ran at it holding a bag.
"We tried to stop him but he ran in forcefully with his bag. All of a sudden there was a blast. You can see for yourself the building is damaged," said a policeman at the scene.
Police said a second blast had hit Kano's passport office and another hit Zaria Road police station in the city.
"The ground was shaking with the explosion. We saw flames and smoke at the police station," said witness Umaru Ibrahim.
A source at the State Security Service said another bomber had tried to attack there but was gunned down before he could detonate his bomb.
Police and military roadblocks were erected in the city within minutes.
"We are trying to reach the scenes of these heavy blasts. Many of the roads are blocked now by security agents," said Abubaker Jibril, head of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) for Kano, told Reuters.
A bomb attack on a Catholic church just outside the capital Abuja on Christmas Day, claimed by Boko Haram, killed 37 people and wounded 57.
The main suspect in that attack escaped from police custody within 24 hours of his arrest, and police have offered a 50 million naira ($309,600) reward for information leading to his recapture.
Police arrested Kabiru Sokoto on Tuesday and while they were taking him from police headquarters to his house in Abaji, just outside Abuja, to conduct a search there, their vehicle came under fire.
Last August a suicide bomber blew up the U.N. Nigeria headquarters in Abuja, killing at least 24 people.
(Additional reporting by Tim Cocks in Lagos; writing by Tim Cocks and James Jukwey; Editing by Jon Boyle)

By Aminu Abubakar | AFP – 4 hours ago

Nigerian security probe attacks that killed 162

• A map of Nigeria showing the location of the country's second-largest city of Kano, where bomb attacks targeting security forces and gun battles killed at least 162 people
• A man inspects the burnt-out wreckage of motorcycles destroyed by multiple explosions and armed assailants in the Marhaba area of the northern Nigerian city of Kano. Soldiers and police were manning checkpoints after coordinated bombings and gun battles killed 162 people in one of the deadliest attacks to hit the mainly Muslim north

A map of Nigeria showing the location of the country's second-largest city of Kano, where bomb attacks targeting security forces and gun battles killed at least 162 people

A man inspects the burnt-out wreckage of motorcycles destroyed by multiple explosions and armed assailants in the Marhaba area of the northern Nigerian city of Kano. Soldiers and police were manning checkpoints after coordinated bombings and gun battles killed 162 people in one of the deadliest attacks to hit the mainly Muslim north
Soldiers and police on Sunday manned checkpoints in Nigeria's second largest city after coordinated bombings and gun battles killed 162 people in one of the deadliest attacks to hit the mainly Muslim north.
A round-the-clock curfew imposed shortly after the city exploded in violence on Friday evening, with eight police and immigration offices or residences targeted, was on Sunday relaxed by 13 hours to a night-time curfew.
President Goodluck Jonathan was expected to visit Kano city Sunday, according to sources in the presidency and government.
Streets remained largely deserted Sunday morning despite the partial lifting of the curfew, as armed soldiers and policemen guarded strategic points in the sprawling city.
Troops and policemen manned the many checkpoints set up across the city.
Rescue workers spent Saturday picking up bodies that littered the streets following the attacks that came after Muslim Friday prayers.
A purported spokesman for Islamist group Boko Haram had claimed responsibility for the violence, saying it was in response to authorities' refusal to release its members from custody.
Scores of such attacks in Nigeria's north have been blamed on Boko Haram, though Friday's would be among the group's most audacious and well-coordinated assaults.
Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for scores of attacks including the Christmas Day bombing of worshippers outside a Catholic church in a town near the capital Abuja, which killed at least 44 people.
Elsewhere in northern Nigeria, nine people of a Christian ethnic group were killed in an overnight raid. A local traditional leader in Tafawa Balewa, a flashpoint of sectarian violence, suspected the attackers were Muslims from the Hausa-Fulani ethnic group.
In Kano on Friday some 20 huge blasts reverberated across the city targeting a number of police offices including a police headquarters, a secret police building and immigration offices.
Gunfire then shook a number of areas, and a local television journalist was among those shot dead as he covered the unrest.
Kano had escaped the worst of the violence blamed on Boko Haram in recent months, but the attacks sent residents fleeing in fear of what would come next.
Not many ventured out onto the streets Sunday even as the curfew was eased.
"Following the return of relative calm in the city, the government hereby relaxes the 24 hour curfew," Faruk Jubril, Kano state government spokesman said.
Authorities have not given a precise death toll from the attacks, only saying it would be over 100.
Hospitals have been struggling to cope with the dead and wounded.
A hospital said 162 bodies had been brought to the morgue on Saturday, but the figure was likely to rise, as more bodies were still being picked up.
A source with the Red Cross said his agency alone had counted 121 dead.
An AFP correspondent counted at least 80 bodies in the main morgue, many of them with gunshot wounds, and said there were piles of other corpses he was unable to count.
President Jonathan declared a state of emergency on December 31 in parts of four states hard hit by attacks attributed to Boko Haram, but Kano was not included.
Most of the recent major attacks have taken place in the country's northeast.
The state of emergency has not stopped attacks, and the areas targeted have spread beyond the locations covered by the decree.
Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation and largest oil producer, is roughly divided between a mainly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south.
The limitations of the authorities were recently highlighted when the alleged mastermind of the Christmas Day bombing escaped police custody in suspicious circumstances.
Attacks specifically targeting Christians have also given rise to fears of a wider religious conflict in the country, with Christian leaders warning they would defend themselves. Some have even evoked the possibility of civil war.
However, attacks blamed on Boko Haram have included a wide range of targets, including Muslims.
The group also claimed responsibility for the August suicide bombing of United Nations headquarters in Abuja that killed 25 people.