#News: Dozens Killed After 2 Bombs Hit Nigerian City Kaduna

[HuffingtonPost]

By Garba Muhammed                

KADUNA, Nigeria, July 23 (Reuters) - Two bomb blasts in the  north Nigerian city of Kaduna killed at least 82 people on  Wednesday, officials said, in attacks that bore the hallmarks of  violent Islamist group Boko Haram.                

A suicide bomber targeting a moderate Muslim cleric killed  at least 32 of the cleric's congregation on a busy commercial  road. Shortly after, a second bomb blast killed 50 people in the  crowded Kawo market on Wednesday, a local Red Cross worker on  the scene, who declined to be named, told Reuters.                

Thousands were gathered for prayers with Sheik Dahiru  Bauchi in Murtala Muhammed square, and when his convoy pulled  up, the bomber lunged at him before being stopped by his private  security, witnesses and police said.                

"The attack was targeted at the sheik. No arrest has been  made yet," said police commissioner Shehu Umar.                

The bomb did not injure Bauchi, several witnesses told  Reuters. Mustafa Sani, a volunteer for Bauchi's mosque  evacuating bodies, said there were 32 confirmed dead so far.                

"Somebody with a bomb vest ... was blocked. He detonated the  bomb along with the person that tried to block him," Umar said,  adding that police had only been able to confirm 25 dead, with  14 wounded. Police sometimes give lower casualty tolls than  workers on the scene.                

A Reuters reporter saw blood and body parts scattered on the  Alkali Road in the city center. The military used pick-up trucks  to cordon off the area. Sirens wailed as fire engines raced to  the scene.                

An angry crowd started throwing stones at police, who  responded by dispersing them with tear gas. Some followers had  come from Senegal, Chad and Niger to see the popular sheik.                                

BOKO HARAM SUSPECTED                

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for either  blast, but Islamist militant group Boko Haram has been staging  attacks, especially with explosives, outside its northeastern  heartlands in the past three months.                

Since launching an insurgency in 2009, the militants have  often attacked clerics, like Bauchi, who take issue with their  Salafist ideology. If Boko Haram is responsible for Wednesday's  attack, it underscores the risks moderate clerics take speaking  out against it.                

The insurgents, who are fighting to carve out an Islamic  state in Nigeria, have repeatedly targeted civilians this year,  mostly in remote northeastern Borno state. They killed more than  2,000 civilians during the first half of this year, Human Rights  Watch (HRW) estimated a week ago.                

The Islamists sacked the northeast town of Damboa and  surrounding villages over the weekend, killing at least 50  people.                

The rebellion has been in the international spotlight since  Boko Haram fighters kidnapped more than 200 girls from a school  in the northeastern village of Chibok on April 14th. President  Goodluck Jonathan met parents of the abducted girls, and some  other girls who had escaped, for the first time on Tuesday.                

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau last week claimed  responsibility for two explosions on June 25 at a fuel depot in  Lagos, Nigeria's commercial hub, that killed at least two  people.                

A military offensive since May last year that was meant to  dismantle their hold on the northeast has caused the militants  to react in two ways: brutal attacks on civilians in the region  have surged dramatically, and efforts to strike out in areas far  from the rebels' strongholds have resumed.                

A blast in the central city of Jos, 170 km (105 miles) east  of Kaduna, killed 118 people in May.      (Writing and additional reporting by Tim Cocks; Editing by  Andrew Heavens and Sonya Hepinstall)
Source: huffingtonPost