Nigeria Attacks Kill 67; Sect Claims Responsibility

[Valin]

NY Times/AP:

11/5/11

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — At least 67 people died in a wave of bombings and shootings carried out in northeast Nigeria on Friday and overnight, officials said Saturday, as frightened mourners left their homes to begin burying their dead.

A radical Islamist faction known as Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the attacks, which represent the most coordinated and wide-ranging assault yet in an increasingly bloody sectarian fight with Nigeria’s weak central government. The sect, which wants the strict implementation of Shariah law, said it would carry out more attacks.

(Snip)

A short time later, suicide bombers in a black S.U.V. tried to enter a base for the military unit charged with protecting the city from Boko Haram fighters, said a military spokesman, Lt. Col. Hassan Ifijeh Mohammed. The S.U.V. could not enter the gate and the explosives were detonated outside of the base, Colonel Mohammed said.

(Snip)

DARN! I was thinking Episcopalians! Imagine my shock.