A criminal Act By Muslim Terrorists

Churches Are Hit in a Series of Bombings Across Nigeria

By MUSIKILU MOJEED and HERBERT BUCHSBAUM
Published: December 25, 2011
headline":"Churches Are Hit in a Series of Bombings Across Nigeria","description":"Apparently coordinated bombings killed more than a dozen people and solidified a recent escalation in violence by Boko Haram, a radical Muslim sect.","keywords":"Terrorism,Christmas,Boko Haram,Nigeria","section":"world","sub_section":"africa","section_display":"World","sub_section_display":"Africa","byline":"By
BENIN CITY, Nigeria — A series of apparently coordinated bombings struck three churches during Christmas services across Nigeria on Sunday, killing more than a dozen people and solidifying a recent escalation in violence by a radical Muslim sect.
if (typeof NYTDVideoManager != "undefined") {
Multimedia
At least five bombings were reported, including three at churches and one at a state security building. The worst appeared to be at a packed Catholic church just outside the capital, Abuja, where a bomb tore through the building and killed at least 16 people as they left a morning mass.
Charred bodies littered the street and twisted cars burned in front of the church. Rescue workers struggling to cope with the chaos faced a shortage of ambulances for the dozens of wounded and an enraged crowd that initially blocked them from entering the church until soldiers arrived to restore order.
The militant sect Boko Haram, which seeks to impose Islamic law across the country, claimed responsibility for several of the bombings and was suspected in others.
Coming after several days of gun battles last week in which more than 60 people were killed and a wave of attacks in November that killed more than 100, the Christmas bombings were clearly intended to carry symbolic weight in a country whose population is about half Muslim and 40 percent Christian.
The same group carried out a series of Christmas Eve bombings last year. But the sect has broadened its targets from its base in the predominantly Muslim northeast, alarming Western intelligence agencies with the suicide car bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Abuja in August, killing 24 people.
The first explosion on Sunday struck St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, about 25 miles northwest of Abuja, which was filled for the Christmas service. There were conflicting reports of casualties: the National Emergency Management Agency said 16 people were killed and 27 wounded, but witnesses said the dead numbered in the dozens.
“Mass just ended and people were rushing out of the church and suddenly I heard a loud sound — bam!” one witness, Nnana Nwachukwu, told Reuters. “Cars were in flames and bodies littered everywhere.”
A parishioner, Timothy Onyekwere, told Reuters that he was in the church with his family when the bomb exploded.
“I just ran out,” he said. “Now I don’t even know where my children or my wife are. I don’t know how many were killed but there were many dead.”
The emergency management agency said it initially did not have enough ambulances available to ferry the wounded to hospitals, and angry crowds gathered at the site impeded the rescue efforts.
“We’re trying to calm the situation,” Slaku Luguard, a coordinator with the agency, told The Associated Press. “There are some angry people around trying to cause problems.”
A Boko Haram spokesman, identified as Abu Qaqa, claimed responsibility for the attacks in statements to the local media.
The White House condemned what it called “this senseless violence and tragic loss of life on Christmas Day,” and in a statement offered to assist Nigerian officials “in bringing those responsible to justice.”
Hours after the first explosion, a second struck near the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Church in Jos, which lies on the border of the mostly Muslim north and the Christian south. There were no direct casualties from the bomb, but a government spokesman, Pam Ayuba, told the A.P. that gunmen later opened fire on police officers guarding the area, killing one of them. Two other bombs were found in a nearby building and disarmed, he said.
“The military are here on ground and have taken control over the entire place,” he said.
Jos, which is ethnically mixed, has been the scene of numerous sectarian attacks that have killed thousands of people in recent years.
News agencies reported at least three other explosions, two in the city of Damaturu and another at a church in Gadaka.
1
2 Next Page »
Musikilu Mojeed reported from Benin City, and Herbert Buchsbaum from New York.

Blogger comment:
At the time when we are trying to liberate ourselves from the tyrants that the west imposed on us all these years and still protect the Gulf tyrants for oil these criminals try to ruin everything we are trying to do. Any innocent lives are sacred. We lost lives to lift oppression and fight our tyrants which is legitimate. As we are trying to win hearts and minds of people all over the world particularly Christians to find these people do these merciless acts. All Muslims should resent that and condemn it. Justice entail the right to arrest, persecute and put in trial these people. If we ask the world to be just to us we should hold justice to others.