11 die in Nigerian bombings

KADUNA, Nigeria — At least 11 people were killed and about 30 injured when two vehicle bombs hit a Protestant church in a major military establishment in north-central Nigeria, officials said Sunday, a month after a church bombing in the same state killed seven.

A bus laden with explosives rammed into St. Andrew Military Protestant Church in the military barracks in Jaji in Kaduna state about noon Nigerian time, said the director of army public relations, Brig. Gen. Bola Koleoso. A Toyota Camry parked just outside the church exploded 10 minutes later, as people fled the first blast, he said.

“Investigations into the bombings have commenced and the affected area is already cordoned off,” Koleoso said.

Jaji is a symbolic target, as it is home to the Armed Forces Command and Staff College, one of the country’s most important military colleges, which trains Nigerian and foreign navy, air force and army officers.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Sunday’s attack, but a radical Islamist sect known as Boko Haram, which wants to impose Islamic rule in Nigeria, has previously targeted Nigerian military institutions.

The group also has targeted Christian churches, security forces and other Muslims, killing more than 1,500 people since 2009, New York-based Human Rights Watch said Oct. 11.

A special military task force announced last week that it would give $1.8 million in rewards for information that could lead to the arrest of top Boko Haram members, including the group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau.

Sunday’s blasts also came a month after another church was attacked in the city of Kaduna, about 25 miles away from Jaji.

In that attack, a suicide bomber rammed a sport utility vehicle loaded with explosives into St. Rita Catholic Church during Mass Oct. 28, killing at least seven people and wounding more than 100 others, authorities said.

The killings sparked instant reprisals in a city with a history of religious violence, leaving at least two more dead.

Churches have been increasingly targeted by violence in Nigeria. In Kaduna state, there were church attacks three weekends in a row in June. Those attacks and the ensuing reprisals left at least 50 people dead. Information for this article was contributed by Yinka Ibukun of The Associated Press and by Dulue Mbachu of Bloomberg News.