Boko Haram spread reaches suicide bombing

AP

19 June 2011

Boko Haram spread reaches suicide bombing

The radical Muslim sect has shot police officials and clerics from atop motorcycles, torched churches and even freed hundreds in a brazen prison escape in Nigeria’s restive north. But this week, Boko Haram expanded its reach and claimed its first suicide bombing in the capital of Africa’s most populous nation.

Thursday’s attack killed at least two people and sent a thick cloud of smoke into the sky that could be seen from across the capital. By striking at the national police headquarters in Abuja, analysts say the group is showing it is willing to spread its fight beyond Nigeria’s Muslim-dominated north.

“This was a bold and deliberate statement on their part to announce that they have come to stay,” said criminologist and security consultant Innocent Chukwuma.