Forty eight hours after a failed suicide bombing failed to hit a high
profile target in Damaturu, Yobe state, another suicide bomber has
rammed his car into a military patrol in the same city, killing himself
and at least five soldiers, a security source said.
“The attacker
died in the explosion and five soldiers were also killed,” the source
said on condition of anonymity.
There was no immediate claim for
the attack, but it was similar to scores of others carried out by
radical Islamist group Boko Haram, whose insurgency has killed hundreds
in Nigeria.
The state police commissioner, Patrick Egbuniwe,
confirmed the explosion and said that there were military casualties,
without providing a figure.
He provided a slightly different
version of events, saying the suicide bomber was being chased by a
military patrol vehicle and the driver blew himself up when soldiers
closed in on him.
Mr Toyin Gbadegeshin, Yobe Police Command Public
Relations Officer, on Sunday confirmed an attack on security patrol
team.
The police spokesman said “the gunmen laid ambush on a
security patrol team using explosive devices around Shagari low cost
housing area”.
He said some military personnel in the targeted
patrol vehicle were injured and rushed to hospital for treatment.
“There
were also gunshots reported around the ‘A’ division police station.
“We
are still working to collect the details of the incident,” the PPRO
said .
However, the security source said the bomber in a
sport-utility vehicle had been parked along the roadside and rammed into
the military convoy when it passed, affecting two of the vehicles.
Damaturu,
capital of Nigeria’s north eastern state of Yobe, has been hard hit by
attacks blamed on Boko Haram.
Sunday’s attack follows a suicide
bomber’s attempt to assassinate Yobe state’s top traditional Muslim
leader, the Emir of Fika, on Friday.
The bomber sought to approach
the emir after Friday prayers in the city of Potiskum but was pushed
away. He blew himself up and wounded a number of others.
Authorities
have been carrying out raids since the attempted attack in a bid to
arrest suspected members of Boko Haram, which has claimed to be fighting
for the creation of an Islamic state in Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north.
The
group is thought to include various factions with differing aims,
however, and demands have repeatedly shifted.
In a video posted to
YouTube on Saturday, the suspected leader of Boko Haram criticised US
President Barack Obama over Washington’s decision to label him a “global
terrorist”.
It was unclear when the video was made, but it marked
the first time Abubakar Shekau publicly addressed the terrorist
designation slapped on him by the United States in June.
In
addition to Shekau, the US State Department also announced the
designations for Abubakar Adam Kambar and Khalid al-Barnawi. Kambar and
Barnawi were said to be linked to Boko Haram and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic
Maghreb, Al-Qaeda’s north African branch.
Members of Boko Haram
are believed to have received training from Al-Qaeda in the Islamic
Maghreb in northern Mali, and Western countries have been watching
closely for signs of further cooperation.
Some US lawmakers have
been pushing Obama’s administration to label Boko Haram as a whole a
terrorist organisation, but American diplomats have stressed that the
group remains domestically focused.
They also say deep poverty and
a lack of infrastructure in Nigeria’s north must be addressed as part
of the solution to the violence.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous
nation and largest oil producer, is roughly divided between a mainly
Muslim north and predominately Christian south.
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