US: Nigerian radicals may bomb hotels
Source: Agencies |
November 7, 2011, Monday
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A radical Muslim sect responsible for attacks that left more than 100 people dead in northeast Nigeria last week could bomb three luxury hotels frequented by foreigners in the oil-rich nation's capital, the US Embassy warned yesterday.
The unusually specific warning from US diplomats identified possible targets of the sect known locally as Boko Haram as the Hilton, Nicon Luxury and Sheraton hotels. Those hotels draw diplomats, politicians and Nigeria's business elite daily in the country's central capital of Abuja.
The US Embassy said the attack may come as Nigeria celebrates the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha and that its diplomats and staff had been instructed to avoid those hotels.
Deb MacLean, an embassy spokeswoman, declined to offer further details about the threat or the source of the information.
The warning came as a Nigerian Red Cross official said yesterday that more than 100 died in a series of attacks in northeast Nigeria launched by the radical Muslim sect, as sect gunmen shot and killed another police officer.
Ibrahim Bulama said he expected the number of dead to rise as clinics and hospitals tabulate casualty figures from the attacks on Friday in Damaturu, the capital of rural Yobe state.
While the hard-hit city remained calm and its Muslim inhabitants celebrated a religious holiday yesterday, army and police units manned roadblocks leading into the town and streets remained largely quiet.
Meanwhile, the Boko Haram sect killed a police inspector in the city of Maiduguri, the sect's spiritual home about 130 kilometers east of Damaturu. Sect gunmen stopped the officer's car at gunpoint as he neared a mosque to pray with his family, local police commissioner Simeon Midenda said.
Gunmen ordered the family away, then shot the inspector to death, Midenda said. The sect members later allowed his family to drive the car away, he said.
The killing prompted a frank acknowledgment from the police commander, whose men remain under siege from constant assassinations by the radical sect.
"Our men who live in the midst of the Boko Haram are not safe," Midenda said.
Statements issued late Saturday from the UN Security Council called the attacks "criminal and unjustifiable" and asked members to help Nigerian authorities bring those responsible to justice.
Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the attacks on Friday, which included suicide bombings and shootings.
The group wants to implement strict shariah law across Nigeria, an oil-rich nation of more than 160 million which has a predominantly Christian south and a Muslim north. The group's name means "Western education is sacrilege" in the local Hausa language.
The unusually specific warning from US diplomats identified possible targets of the sect known locally as Boko Haram as the Hilton, Nicon Luxury and Sheraton hotels. Those hotels draw diplomats, politicians and Nigeria's business elite daily in the country's central capital of Abuja.
The US Embassy said the attack may come as Nigeria celebrates the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha and that its diplomats and staff had been instructed to avoid those hotels.
Deb MacLean, an embassy spokeswoman, declined to offer further details about the threat or the source of the information.
The warning came as a Nigerian Red Cross official said yesterday that more than 100 died in a series of attacks in northeast Nigeria launched by the radical Muslim sect, as sect gunmen shot and killed another police officer.
Ibrahim Bulama said he expected the number of dead to rise as clinics and hospitals tabulate casualty figures from the attacks on Friday in Damaturu, the capital of rural Yobe state.
While the hard-hit city remained calm and its Muslim inhabitants celebrated a religious holiday yesterday, army and police units manned roadblocks leading into the town and streets remained largely quiet.
Meanwhile, the Boko Haram sect killed a police inspector in the city of Maiduguri, the sect's spiritual home about 130 kilometers east of Damaturu. Sect gunmen stopped the officer's car at gunpoint as he neared a mosque to pray with his family, local police commissioner Simeon Midenda said.
Gunmen ordered the family away, then shot the inspector to death, Midenda said. The sect members later allowed his family to drive the car away, he said.
The killing prompted a frank acknowledgment from the police commander, whose men remain under siege from constant assassinations by the radical sect.
"Our men who live in the midst of the Boko Haram are not safe," Midenda said.
Statements issued late Saturday from the UN Security Council called the attacks "criminal and unjustifiable" and asked members to help Nigerian authorities bring those responsible to justice.
Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the attacks on Friday, which included suicide bombings and shootings.
The group wants to implement strict shariah law across Nigeria, an oil-rich nation of more than 160 million which has a predominantly Christian south and a Muslim north. The group's name means "Western education is sacrilege" in the local Hausa language.
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