Boko Haram Claims Kano Bomb Blasts

Elombah.com

20 January 2012

Boko Haram Claims Kano Bomb Blasts       

The dreaded Islamic sect Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for the recent wave of multiple explosions that have ripped through Kano city today, according to a local BBC service. At least seven people are said to have been killed in the attacks that rocked the city. The extent of the damage to the city is still unknown, but several state offices were affected, including the police headquarters in the city.

A journalist on the ground likened the sound of the attacks to the explosion of 20 bombs, however some reports via the Associated Press say four bombs exploded in the city in a simultaneous attack.

Eye witness photos of the attacks show plumes of smoke hovering over northern Nigeria's second largest city. Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is forbidden", has said it carried out the attacks.  The terrorists also said it carried out an attack on a church near Abuja on Christmas Day.

A spokesman for the group, Abul Qaqa, told journalists in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri, the group's base, that it had carried out the attacks because the authorities had refused to release members arrested in Kano.