NIGERIA: Body of suspected would-be suicide bomber is discovered in a bomb-laden car in Damaturu, northeastern Nigeria

Record ID: 235346

  • Title: NIGERIA: Body of suspected would-be suicide bomber is discovered in a bomb-laden car in Damaturu, northeastern Nigeria
  • Date: 8th November 2011
  • Summary: DAMATURU, NIGERIA (NOVEMBER 07, 2011) (4:3) (REUTERS) SECURITY PERSONNEL AT THE SCENE OF SHOOTING VARIOUS OF BODY OF SUSPECTED BOMBER INSIDE CAR VEHICLE NUMBER PLATES VARIOUS OF SECURITY PERSONNEL AT THE SCENE BODY INSIDE CAR CAR
  • Embargoed: 23rd November 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Nigeria, Nigeria
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Topics: Crime
  • Reuters ID: LVA49D6AQAZST7U5IZ47DCQTW5CP
  • Story Text: Nigerian security forces on Monday (November 7) discovered the body of a suspected suicide bomber surrounded by what appeared to be explosive devices in the northeastern city of Damaturu.
    The body of the middle-aged man was found in an old Volkswagen car parked next to a residential building. It wasn't immediately clear how he died.
    Witnesses said the car had been there for several hours before police arrived.
    Nigerian security forces said on Sunday (November 6) they were searching for Islamist militants behind a coordinated attack in the north that killed at least 65 people.
    The Boko Haram Islamist sect has claimed responsibility for multiple gun and bomb attacks in the city of Damaturu on Friday (November 4) in its deadliest attack yet, which left bodies littering the streets and reduced police stations, churches and mosques to smouldering rubble.
    Many of the wounded continue to receive treatment in Damaturu hospital.
    Government officials on Monday inspected the damage caused by the multiple attacks.
    On Sunday suspected Boko Haram militants shot dead an off-duty police officer as he returned from prayers to celebrate a Muslim holiday in Maiduguri, the group's main base, Borno state police commissioner Simeon Midend told Reuters.
    An emergency relief agency that counted bodies in the morgues gave a toll of 65 -- 63 from the Damaturu attack and another two from a strike on a neighbouring village, Potiskum.
    Residents still in shock questioned how the gunmen were able to take over the city and wreak havoc with apparent ease.
    Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is forbidden" in the Hausa language, is growing in sophistication, and the increasing audacity and deadliness of its attacks are becoming a major security headache for President Goodluck Jonathan's administration.
    Friday's violence also included a spate of bomb attacks in Maiduguri. The group has also hit the capital twice this year.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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