NIGERIA MASTERWEB DAILY NEWS

*Bomb-Filled Cars Roam Kano As Explosions Rock City Again

-Masterweb Reports

Nigeria Security Forces could not stop Boko Haram from bombing Kano again after they unleashed terror on the city last week Friday, resulting in the death of over 180 people. The attacks that day after Friday prayers, targeted mainly police buildings, including the police headquarters. Five of the attackers were suicide bombers and twenty-nine of the victims were police officers, according to Kano State Police Commissioner, Ibrahim Idris.

Again on Tuesday, Boko Haram coordinated several attacks in an area housing a mobile police headquarters. Witnesses reported hearing Tuesday morning between 12 to 15 explosions and several gunshots in the vicinity of the mobile police headquarters. The attacks were carried out even with a dusk-to-dawn curfew imposed on the city after Friday's attacks. "I was awoken from sleep by explosions and gunshots coming from the mobile barracks and police station opposite," one resident told reporters.

The picture emerging is one of Boko Haram fighters eluding detection, simultaneously with military precision attacking government targets, including police stations. "Certainly, everybody is surprised at the kind of sophistication they have because even the police couldn't have the weapons that can fight back. People are wondering from where and how they are getting their weapons and the kind of training they are having," Salisu Fage, Leadership Newspaper reporter in Kano said in a statement. Yunus Zakaria Ya'u, a staff at Kano Center for Information Technology and Development said police officers now wear plain clothes (mufti) to avoid detection by Boko Haram, their unseen enemy. "There is less visibility of police on the streets, I guess it is largely strategic. They probably are using plain clothes since the uniform has become the target of the Boko Haram," Ya'u told newsmen. ( Continues below….. )

Photo Above: A policeman checks a car for explosives in Kano, January 22, 2012.

In another development the same Tuesday morning, security forces killed a man and his pregnant wife in an assault on a residential home in Kano. Witnesses said security forces surrounded the home and gun battle lasting several hours eschewed. The male victim was a retired civil servant from the Federal Ministry of Education, according to his relative, Musa Ibrahim Fate. The walls of the home were punctured with bullet holes, so also were the doors and furnitures. A sedan car in the compound bearing federal government license plates was also riddled with bullet holes. Security forces took away with them the two dead bodies. Evidence linking the victims to the dreaded Boko Haram Islamic terrorist group is yet to be revealed at the time of this report. Kano Police Commissioner acknowledged the attack and said it was part of government's effort in rooting out Boko Haram. The dead man's relative, Fate said the deceased was not a member of the terrorist group. "He didn't belong to any religious group. Is it because of his beard? That means you cannot dress the way you are. Is it good? Is this how government is going to treat us?" Fate said in a statement. Residents of the neighborhood pressed shoulder-to-shoulder inside the victims' home saying the army and police killed the man and his pregnant wife for no reason.

On Monday police discovered six cars and four vans loaded with explosives in Kano. "The police were on a stop-and-search today and in two of the checkpoints, the Boko Haram members on sighting the checkpoints abandoned their vehicles and ran. The vehicles were later checked and the cars were loaded with explosives. Two brand new Hilux open pick-up vans were also found packed with explosives in the Bompai area of Kano," a senior police officer speaking on condition of anonymity told newsmen.

On Sunday in Maiduguri, home base of Boko Haram, a policeman was shot dead by members of the terrorist sect. "The policeman was on patrol along with his colleague in a vehicle when the Boko Haram opened fire and shot him dead. As usual the killers just disappeared into the crowd," Simeon Midena, Maiduguri Commissioner of Police told reporters. The same Sunday, the army killed four Boko Haram gunmen in the city and found explosives in their car. "Four members of Boko Haram sect involved in killings in Maiduguri and environs have been under surveillance of security agencies and have been shot dead in Pomomari area of Maiduguri yesterday (Sunday). Various IED (improvised explosive device) materials prepared for detonation were recovered from their car," Colonel Victor Ebhaleme, an officer in the Joint Military Task Force (JTF), said in a statement. JTF has increased its surveillance and patrols in Maiduguri in a bid to defeat Boko Haram in the city.

Human Rights Watch issued a statement Tuesday calling Boko Haram's recent bombings “an indefensible attack on human life." The rights group said 935 people have been killed since Boko Haram began its terror campaign in July 2009, including over 250 so far in January this year.

Boko Haram whose name in Hausa language means "western education is sinful" is modeled after Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. It wants to impose sharia law across Nigeria through terror attacks in drawing attention to their demands. Outside the current attacks in Kano, the group had in the past launched attacks on churches, government buildings, police stations and other targets, including drive-by shootings resulting in casualties. Many have fled the north from these attacks

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Article Source: Masterweb Reports

Photo Above: A victim of Kano Boko Haram attacks of Friday, January 20, 2012

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