conducting Mass in northern Nigeria on Sunday, killing two people and
wounding another 45 in a region under assault by a radical Islamist
sect, officials said.
An Associated Press journalist heard the explosion after 9 a.m. Sunday
in the city of Bauchi, which has seen a number of bombings and
shootings blamed on the sect known as Boko Haram. The blast appeared
to hit a parking lot alongside the St. John's Catholic Church in the
city.
Police and military surrounded the church and did not allow
journalists inside the cordon. Later at a nearby hospital, Bauchi
deputy police commissioner T. Stevens told journalists told that the
bomber had been stopped at the church's gate, where he detonated the
explosives packed inside his car.
Doctors cautioned more could die from their injuries.
"The situation has been brought under control," Stevens said. "We have
our men minding all areas."
Stevens said no group or individual had claimed responsibility for the
attack, though suspicion immediately fell on Boko Haram. The sect,
whose name means "Western education is sacrilege" in the Hausa
language of Nigeria's north, has been waging an increasingly bloody
fight against nation's weak central government. More than 680 people
have died in drive-by killings and bombings blamed on Boko Haram this
year alone, according to an AP count. The sect has demanded the
release of all its captive members and has called for strict Shariah
law to be implemented across the entire country.
The sect has used suicide car bombs against churches in the past, most
noticeably a 2011 Christmas Day attack on a Catholic church in Madalla
near Nigeria's capital. That attack and assaults elsewhere in the
country killed at least 44 people. An unclaimed car bombing on Easter
in Kaduna killed at least 38 people on a busy roadway after witnesses
say it was turned away from a church.
Attacks against churches by the sect have waned in recent weeks.
Nigeria's military claimed it killed the sect's spokesman and a
commander Sept. 17 outside the city of Kano, potentially shaking up a
sect that has continued attacks despite a tighter military presence in
northern cities.
The killing of members of the sect's senior leadership comes as the
group recently changed some of its tactics and attacked more than 30
mobile phone towers throughout northern Nigeria, disrupting
communications in a nation reliant on cellular phones.
Saturday night, the military conducted door-to-door searches in the
northern cities of Damaturu and Potiskum, areas now under a 24-hour
curfew that have been hard-hit by the sect.
___
Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Lagos, Nigeria, contributed to
this report.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.