Blasts at Nigeria mosque kill 35
Attack in 2nd-largest city looks like Boko Haram’s; 150 hurt
KANO, Nigeria — Multiple explosions tore through the central mosque in Nigeria’s second-largest city Friday, killing 35 people, police said.
150 others also suffered various degrees of injuries in the blasts in the city of Kano, State Deputy Police Commissioner Sanusi Lemu said.
Hundreds had gathered to listen to a sermon in a region terrorized by attacks from the militant group Boko Haram.
“Some gunmen equally opened fire on the worshippers,” Lemu was quoted as saying by Nigeria’s Channels Television.
Witnesses described a scene of carnage.
“I was rushing to attend the mosque for the prayer when I heard a big sound and heavy smoke skyrocketed the sky,” said one witness, Ahmed Mohammed Soron Dinki. “It was terrible. I saw more than 50 dead bodies on the bare ground of the mosque, and the majority of the dead bodies are kids and their parents.”
Witnesses said heavy smoke could be seen billowing in the sky from a long distance away. Immediately after the blasts, hundreds of angry youths took to the streets in riots, throwing stones, brandishing sticks and shouting at security officials.
The palace of the emir of Kano is near the central mosque. Palace officials said the emir, one of the highest ranking Islamic figures in Nigeria, is currently out of the country.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the attack bore the hallmarks of the Boko Haram militant group, which has carried out numerous such attacks in northern Nigeria, including in Kano.
In September, two suicide bombers killed at least 15 students at a government college, and in July, five suicide bombings were carried out over the course of a week. More than 1,500 have been killed this year in the insurgency, with attacks on schools, markets, crowds watching soccer and entire villages.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan condemned the attack and reiterated the government’s determination to “continue to take every step to put an end to the reprehensible acts of all groups and persons involved in acts of terrorism.”
He called on all Nigerians “to remain united to confront the common enemy” by being vigilant and cooperating with security agencies.
He also called on relief agencies and medical staff members to “deploy every possible effort to assist the injured” and urged the public to donate blood to the hospitals where they are treated.
Meanwhile, a police anti-bomb squad defused six bombs planted near a mosque and a market in Maiduguri on Friday, according to Borno state police spokesman Gideon Jubrin.
Fears are running high in Maiduguri after two female suicide bombers blew themselves up this week at a crowded market, killing dozens of shoppers and merchants. Two weeks earlier, a suicide attacker disguised as a student detonated a bomb at a boarding school in the north, killing nearly 50 boys and young men.
That violence also has been attributed to Boko Haram, which gained international notoriety by kidnapping more than 200 girls from a rural northern school in the spring.
Information for this article was contributed by staff members of The Associated Press; by Ibrahim Garba Shuaibu of The New York Times; and by Alexandra Zavis of the Los Angeles Times.