No fewer than 67 persons died in separate attacks in Potiskum and Damaturu, the Yobe state capital following hours of bombardment by the dreaded Boko Haram Islamic sect.
Attackers also left scores injured -- probably more than 100 -- in a three-hour rampage in the Yobe state city of Damaturu, according to Ibrahim Bulama of the Red Cross. Sixty-three people died.
A series of bomb and gun attacks targeting police stations, mosques and churches left 65 people dead in northeastern Nigeria, the Red Cross said Saturday.
Gunmen first attacked the police headquarters and the anti-terror office before moving to churches and mosques, he said. Most of the casualties were police officers. "It is a very bad scene," he said.
The Friday attacks came the same day suicide bombers suspected to belong to a militant Islamist group targeted a military base in nearby Maiduguri. In Potiskum, also located in Yobe state, gunmen attacked a book shop near the police station, killing two and injuring 5, the Red Cross said. Three suicide bombers drove a stolen black SUV toward a Joint Task Force headquarters, but could not get through the gate, military spokesman Lt. Col. Hassan Mohammed said. The blast damaged roofs and walls of the base.
Mohammed said two other simultaneous explosions took place at other military facilities. An unspecified number of Nigerian soldiers suffered injuries. Saturday evening, a suicide bomber launched another attack in Maiduguri, Mohammed said. No casualties were reported except for the bomber. He blamed the militant group Boko Haram for the attacks.Loosely translated, the group's name means "Western education is sinful." It wants to establish a state based on Sharia, or Islamic law, in northern Nigeria. The Red Cross official said Boko Haram is suspected in the Damaturu attack as well.
MULTIPLE SUICIDE BOMBINGS
The conflict has heightened rifts between Nigeria's increasingly prosperous, oil-rich south and its economically deprived, semi-arid north. Boko Haram appears to be growing in sophistication, and security analysts believe it has made links with al Qaeda's north African affiliate.
The sect has overtaken militants in the oil-rich Niger Delta as the biggest security headache for President Goodluck Jonathan, whose administration has received criticism for failing to protect citizens from almost daily attacks.
"These attacks in Yobe State and elsewhere are condemnable," a presidential spokesman said by telephone.
"The President has reaffirmed the task to security chiefs to stop whoever is behind this. It is a small minority with a dastardly agenda. The president has canceled his day's events in respect for the dead," he added.
Another witness to the Damaturu violence, Umar Gambo, said he had seen several dozen dead bodies at the local morgue.
"The streets are deserted. I have lost count of dead bodies, but ... I saw at least 80 dead bodies in the mortuary. There is no high presence of security on the streets and two banks were bombed," he said.
"I can't understand why all this madness."
Boko Haram says it wants sharia law more widely imposed across Nigeria. It draws much of its support from unemployed youth in the remote north.
In August, a suicide car bomb attack against the United Nations' Nigeria headquarters in Abuja killed 26 people.
"The police headquarters, (military) Joint Task Force Office and five Churches were attacked with explosives ... and there was also an exchange of gunfire between the Security operatives and the unknown gunmen in Damaturu, the state capital," the report said.
Some 16 other people were wounded by gunshots at the two locations, all but three of them hospitalised, it said. It described the city Saturday as "relatively calm."
Seven police officers and two soldiers were among the dead in Damaturu, a military source said.
The attacks followed multiple bomb blasts earlier Friday in nearby Maiduguri, Boko Haram's heartland, including a triple suicide bombing of a military headquarters and three roadside bombs. The blasts, all shortly after Friday prayers, wounded at least seven people.
Attackers also left scores injured -- probably more than 100 -- in a three-hour rampage in the Yobe state city of Damaturu, according to Ibrahim Bulama of the Red Cross. Sixty-three people died.
A series of bomb and gun attacks targeting police stations, mosques and churches left 65 people dead in northeastern Nigeria, the Red Cross said Saturday.
Gunmen first attacked the police headquarters and the anti-terror office before moving to churches and mosques, he said. Most of the casualties were police officers. "It is a very bad scene," he said.
The Friday attacks came the same day suicide bombers suspected to belong to a militant Islamist group targeted a military base in nearby Maiduguri. In Potiskum, also located in Yobe state, gunmen attacked a book shop near the police station, killing two and injuring 5, the Red Cross said. Three suicide bombers drove a stolen black SUV toward a Joint Task Force headquarters, but could not get through the gate, military spokesman Lt. Col. Hassan Mohammed said. The blast damaged roofs and walls of the base.
Mohammed said two other simultaneous explosions took place at other military facilities. An unspecified number of Nigerian soldiers suffered injuries. Saturday evening, a suicide bomber launched another attack in Maiduguri, Mohammed said. No casualties were reported except for the bomber. He blamed the militant group Boko Haram for the attacks.Loosely translated, the group's name means "Western education is sinful." It wants to establish a state based on Sharia, or Islamic law, in northern Nigeria. The Red Cross official said Boko Haram is suspected in the Damaturu attack as well.
MULTIPLE SUICIDE BOMBINGS
The conflict has heightened rifts between Nigeria's increasingly prosperous, oil-rich south and its economically deprived, semi-arid north. Boko Haram appears to be growing in sophistication, and security analysts believe it has made links with al Qaeda's north African affiliate.
The sect has overtaken militants in the oil-rich Niger Delta as the biggest security headache for President Goodluck Jonathan, whose administration has received criticism for failing to protect citizens from almost daily attacks.
"These attacks in Yobe State and elsewhere are condemnable," a presidential spokesman said by telephone.
"The President has reaffirmed the task to security chiefs to stop whoever is behind this. It is a small minority with a dastardly agenda. The president has canceled his day's events in respect for the dead," he added.
Another witness to the Damaturu violence, Umar Gambo, said he had seen several dozen dead bodies at the local morgue.
"The streets are deserted. I have lost count of dead bodies, but ... I saw at least 80 dead bodies in the mortuary. There is no high presence of security on the streets and two banks were bombed," he said.
"I can't understand why all this madness."
Boko Haram says it wants sharia law more widely imposed across Nigeria. It draws much of its support from unemployed youth in the remote north.
In August, a suicide car bomb attack against the United Nations' Nigeria headquarters in Abuja killed 26 people.
"The police headquarters, (military) Joint Task Force Office and five Churches were attacked with explosives ... and there was also an exchange of gunfire between the Security operatives and the unknown gunmen in Damaturu, the state capital," the report said.
Some 16 other people were wounded by gunshots at the two locations, all but three of them hospitalised, it said. It described the city Saturday as "relatively calm."
Seven police officers and two soldiers were among the dead in Damaturu, a military source said.
The attacks followed multiple bomb blasts earlier Friday in nearby Maiduguri, Boko Haram's heartland, including a triple suicide bombing of a military headquarters and three roadside bombs. The blasts, all shortly after Friday prayers, wounded at least seven people.
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