Boko Haram claims responsibility for new wave of deadly attacks
Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Nigeria's violent Islamic sect Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for Monday's attack on the country home of Vice President Namadi Sambo, as well as others in the predominantly-Muslim north that left a total of 13 persons dead.
The private Nation newspaper Wednesday quoted a statement from the sect, whose name means 'Western education is sin' in the local Hausa language, as saying in addition to the attack on the VP's house in Zaria, northern Kaduna state, it also carried out the suicide bombings in Sokoto, as well as other attacks in Bauchi, Borno and Yobe states.
“We want to stress that in our struggle, we only kill government functionaries, security agents, Christians and anyone who pretends to be a Muslim but engage in assisting security agents to arrest us,” The group warned in the statement sent to journalists on Tuesday evening from its spiritual base of Maiduguri.
“We are responsible for the attacks in Bauchi and at the residence of (VP) Namadi Sambo in Zaria as well as the one in Damaturu where we bombed a patrol vehicle. We equally dealt a big blow on JTF operatives in Maiduguri who, out of frustration, went back and killed innocent and defenseless citizens,'' it said.
Monday's attack on the VP's residence left one person, a cobbler, dead and two policemen guarding the residence injured.
On the same day, three persons, a police Corporal and two suspected suicide bombers, died while eight policemen and one civilian were injured in two simultaneous suicide bomb attacks at a police zonal headquarters and a shop near a police station in Sokoto.
On Sunday, four persons, including two Nigerian Air Force personnel, were killed in the eponymous Kaduna state capital on Sunday by gunmen riding on a motorcycle.
Also in the northern city of Kano, four suspected gunmen were killed in a gun battle at Jan Bulo quarters in Kano metropolis on Sunday night.
Boko Haram has killed over 1,200 people in gun and bomb attacks since 2009, when it launched a violent campaign to carve out an Islamic state in Nigeria.
-0- PANA SEG 1Aug2012
