The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Suicide bomber

  • Woman suicide bomber hits military barracks

    Woman suicide bomber hits military barracks

    Two persons, including a suspected female suicide bomber in Hijab and a soldier, were blown up yesterday in front of a military barracks in Gombe, the Gombe State capital.

    Another soldier was injured.

    But, sources said no fewer than three soldiers died, when the time bomb went off as the woman approached the Quarter Guard area of the 301 Artillery Regiment, pretending that she wanted to lodge a complaint.

    She was said to have bombed herself and the three soldiers interrogating her at the entrance.

    There were doubts about the suicide bomber’s sex following speculations that she was probably a man disguised as a woman in order to enter the barracks.

    Last Thursday, the Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) in front of Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo’s residence blew up, killing two security men and injuring six others.

    According to a military source, the bomber was on a mission to attack the barracks around 11am.

    The source said when the bomber got to the gate, she met a long queue of vehicles being checked.

    The source said: “The insurgents are becoming desperate, they are trying to use female bombers thinking that because of the strict Islamic culture in the North, soldiers would not conduct thorough checks on women.

    “When this female bomber in full veil (Hijab) got to the queue at the barracks, the soldiers on guard insisted on no waiver for any female motorist entering the barracks.  It was in the process that the Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) exploded.  She got killed instantly.

    “Apart from mopping up the area, the military is already investigating the botched suicide mission.”

    Director of  Defence Information, Maj-Gen Chris Olukolade confirmed the attack.

    Gen. Olukolade told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on telephone that one soldier died while another was wounded in the explosion.

    He said normal activities had resumed at the barracks in Gombe.

    “Intelligence deduced from credible information earlier received on this plot confirms the vigilance of some members of the public,’’ Gen. Olukolade said.

    He said in a statement:  “Troops mounting a security check point at a Barrack entrance in Gombe this morning (yesterday) intercepted a lady suicide bomber while she was attempting to gain entry into the barracks.

    “The lady suicide bomber who had primed herself with Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) concealed under her Hijab was intercepted when troops acting on intelligence report indicating that a terrorist  group was plotting to attack barracks around Gombe using female suicide bombers, halted her and as she was being searched the bomb detonated, killing the lady.

    “Unfortunately one of the troops conducting the search also died while another was wounded in the explosion.

    “Normal activities have since resumed in the barracks.”

    Immediately the explosion occurred, soldiers cordoned off the road leading to the barracks.

    Also, shops and other business centres were hurriedly shut when the blast occurred as passers-by ran helter-skelter.

    A resident, who did not want his name mentioned, told NAN he was in his house around 11.20 a.m. when he heard the blast.

    He said he also heard soldiers shooting into the air, apparently to scare people.

    The source said he saw some injured persons being conveyed in vehicles from the scene, while soldiers blocked the road and stopped people from going there.

    Troops had a bloody encounter with insurgents in Pitta, a boundary town between Adamawa and Borno states on Saturday night, leaving 30 insurgents dead.

    The encounter led to the recovery of 25 machine guns, Rocket Propeller Guns (RPGs) and more than 50 motorcycles from the insurgents.

    According to Gen. Olukolade, the insurgents wanted to attack some villages along Pitta axis on Saturday, but troops acted on intelligence report and foiled it.

    He said: “The troops successfully repelled the insurgents who suffered heavy casualties.

    “We have beefed up security in the area to protect all the villages and avert reprisals.”

  • Egyptian minister survives assassination attempt

    Egyptian minister survives assassination attempt

    Egyptian Interior Minister, Mohammed Ibrahim, on Thursday survived an assassination attempt by unknown persons.

    Report says bombs were set off near his motorcade.

    It was the first of such attack in Egypt in years.

    “The explosion occurred as the minister was on his way in a motorcade from his house in Nasr City, eastern Cairo, to the Interior Ministry building in central Cairo,” the state-run Middle East News Agency reported, quoting a security source.

    The News Agency of Nigeria gathered that six bodyguards were wounded and several cars destroyed.

    The explosion was caused by three bombs attached to a motorcycle parked outside the minister’s house.

    Ibrahim, who is responsible for the country’s security forces, has led a relentless crackdown on Islamists since the army deposed president Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood following massive street protests against his rule.

    More than 1,000 people, mainly Brotherhood followers, have since been killed in the violence.

    Morsi, Egyptian first democratically elected president, is being detained by the army at a secret location.

     

     

  • Blast hits Somali government convoy

    A car bomb has exploded near a government convoy in the Somali capital Mogadishu, killing at least eight people, officials say.

    A police spokesman told AFP news agency a suicide attacker had driven a car laden with explosives at an armoured government vehicle.

    According to the same source, those inside the vehicle survived the blast.

    BBC reports that the attack comes just days before a major conference in London on the future of Somalia.

    No group said immediately it had carried out Sunday’s attack.

    The country’s main Islamist group al-Shabab, which is part of al-Qaeda, has been forced out of the main cities in the south and centre but still controls smaller towns and many rural areas.

    Five people were also injured by the explosion, a local official told Reuters news agency.

    One of the agency’s photographers said he could see three people lying motionless near the wreckage of four burning cars.

    The London conference will discuss how best the international community can support Somalia’s progress.

    More than 50 countries and organisations are due to take part when it opens on Tuesday, co-hosted by Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron.

     

  • Many killed in kano as suicide bombers attack Lagos-bound bus

    Many killed in kano as suicide bombers attack Lagos-bound bus

    Unspecified number of travelers aboard a Lagos bound luxury bus, including park workers and traders were killed on Monday during a suicide attack at the New road Motor Park, located at the Sabon Gari area of Kano.

    The attack, which occurred at about 4.30 pm during the peak period was targeted at a Lagos-bound 59 seater luxury bus which  was blown up when it was departing the park.

    Eyewitness account hinted that three  suicide bombers had positioned their Golf car, primed with explosives between Gobison Luxury bus and one other before detonating the explosives immediately the driver of the bus was about to take off .

    Apart from the 59 seated passengers onboard the ill-fated bus, it was gathered that there were no fewer than 40 extra passengers when it was blown up and none according to our sources survived.

    As at the time of filing this report, the tragic scene was cordoned off by men of the military joint task force to pave way for the evacuation of both dead and injured victims, who were taken to the Murtala Muhammed Specialist mortuary in the case of the dead victims.

    Some of the injured victims had amputated arms and limbs, resulting from the severe impact of the explosions. About six explosions were heard in the busy park that accommodates mostly South-East and South West bound passengers.

    At the last count, apart from the wrecked Gobison bus, 10 other buses were torched.

     

  • Car bomb kills 10 in Somalia

    A car bomb exploded near the presidential palace in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Monday, killing at least 10 people in a blast that appeared to target senior government officials, police said.

    The suicide attacker detonated explosives while driving along a boulevard that runs between the palace and the national theatre.

    A route lined by tearooms that were engulfed in fire moments after the blast, senior police officer Abdiqadir Mohamud said.

    A public minibus driving along the road burst into flames.

    “The suicide car bomber targeted a senior national security officer whose car was passing near the theatre,’’ Mohamud told Reuters.

    “Most of the people who died on board the minibus were civilians. This public vehicle coincidentally came between the government car and the car bomb when it was hit. Littered in the scene are human hands and flesh.’’

    Security in Mogadishu has improved greatly since a military offensive drove Islamist rebels allied to al Qaeda out of the city in August 2011.

    However, bombings and assassinations in Mogadishu, blamed on militants, still occur often.

    It was not clear who was behind Monday’s bombing.

     

     

  • Suicide bomber attacks U.S embassy in Turkey

    Suicide bomber attacks U.S embassy in Turkey

    A suicide bomber has attacked the United States embassy in the Turkish capital Ankara, killing a guard, officials told the BBC.

    The blast, at a side entrance of the heavily guarded compound, sent debris flying into the street.

    The U.S has warned its citizens not to visit diplomatic missions in Turkey until further notice.

    No group has said it carried out the attack, but Interior Minister Muammer Guler said the bomber, who also died, was a far-left militant.

    Mr. Guler suggested that the bomber might have been a member of the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C).

    He also said the attacker was believed to have been a Turkish national.

    Turkey and the U.S have denounced the incident as terrorism.

    White House spokesman Jay Carney said the U.S strongly condemned the “terrorist attack.”

    Ankara was last hit by a suicide bombing in September 2011, in an attack blamed on Kurdish militants.

    A number of illegal groups ranging from Kurdish separatists to leftist and Islamist militants have launched attacks in Turkey in recent years.

     

  • Five die in Kaduna church blast

    Five die in Kaduna church blast

    A suicide bomber drove a vehicle packed with explosives into a Catholic church in Kaduna on Sunday, killing at least five people, wounding nearly 100 and triggering reprisal attacks that killed at least two more, officials said.

    Reuters reports that the bomber drove a jeep right inside the packed St Rita’s church, in the Malali area of the city early on Sunday morning.

    A spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency in Kaduna said that five people had been confirmed killed, while 98 people were receiving treatment for wounds at two local hospitals.

    There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Islamist sect Boko Haram has claimed similar attacks in the past and has attacked several churches with bombs and guns since it intensified its campaign against Christians in the past year.

    “The heavy explosion also damaged so many buildings around the area,” said survivor Linus Lighthouse, saying he thought there had been two explosions in different parts of the church.

    Other witnesses and the police said there was just one bomber. A wall of the church was blasted open and scorched black, with debris lying around. Police later moved in and cordoned the area off.

    Church attacks often target Nigeria’s middle belt, where its largely Christian south and mostly Muslim north meet and where sectarian tensions run high. Kaduna’s mixed population lies along that faultline.

    Shortly after the blast, angry Christian youths took to the streets armed with sticks and knives.

    A Reuters reporter saw two bodies on the roadside lying in pools of blood.

    “We killed them and we’ll do more,” shouted a youth, with blood on his shirt, before police chased him and his cohorts away. Police set up roadblocks and patrols across town in an effort to prevent the violence spreading.

    Another witness to the bombing, Daniel Kazah, a member of the Catholic cadets in the church, said he had seen three bodies on the bloodied church floor in the aftermath.

    A spokesman for St. Gerard’s Catholic hospital, Sunday John, said the hospital was treating 14 wounded victims. Another hospital, Garkura, had 84 victims, the NEMA official said.

    Many residents rushed indoors, fearing an upsurge in the sectarian killing that has periodically blighted Kaduna.

    A bomb attack in a church in the state in June triggered a week of tit-for-tat violence that killed at least 90 people.

     

  • Church Bombing: Police confirm 3 dead, 46 injured in Bauchi

    Church Bombing: Police confirm 3 dead, 46 injured in Bauchi

    The Police Command in Bauchi State said on Sunday that the explosion at St John’s Catholic Church, Bauchi, killed three persons, including the suicide bomber.

    The police spokesperson, ASP Hassan Auyo, also told newsmen that 46 other worshippers in the church were injured.

    He said that the incident occurred when a car-riding suicide bomber tried to force himself into the church.

    Auyo said the bomber hit a barricade and detonated an Improvised Explosive Device that caused the deaths and injuries.

    He, however, said that no arrest had been made, although investigation had begun into the incident.

    Earlier, the Nigeria Red Cross and the Christian Association of Nigeria, Bauchi chapter, had given the casualty figure as four persons dead, including the bomber, and 48 others injured.