Nigeria suicide attack targets church service

KABOOM!

I have a question, and if you guess right you win a box of Cracker Jacks… What was the suicide bomber’s belief system?

a) Christianity b) Buddhism c) Islam d) Hinduism e) Judaism f) Atheism

Give up, you feel the question is too tough? Well, the correct answer is c) Islam. Surprised? You shouldn’t be. Whenever and wherever an idiot blows himself up, you can bet everything you own that it’s a Muslim; a member of that “peaceful faith,” Islam.

And here are “words of wisdom” from someone in the church: “If he had driven into the middle of the church it could have been worse, but God was in control.” Brilliant! A simply brilliant statement! I’ll bet the people who were blown to bits didn’t feel as if God was in control. TGO

Refer to story below. Source: Associated Press

AFPAFP

A suicide bomber detonated an explosives laden car outside a packed church in Nigeria during Sunday service, killing three people and injuring dozens, church officials said.

The bombing of one of the largest churches in the central city of Jos sparked rioting by Christian youths and three people, believed to be Muslims, were killed in apparent revenge attacks, witnesses said.

Police confirmed the bombing, but declined to comment on the subsequent rioting, saying life had returned to normal after the attack.

Witnesses said a car rammed the gate of a perimeter fence and exploded a few metres (yards) from the wall of an 800-seater church hall in the volatile city.

“The bomber drove at top speed, and there was a loud explosion and everything was black,” said churchgoer Ezekiel Gomos, who said he had seen a black car driving fast towards the church hall around 30 minutes into the service.

The church was about 80 percent full at the time.

“If he had driven into the middle of the church it could have been worse, but God was in control,” said Gomos.

The bombing is the latest of a series of almost daily attacks, most of them blamed on Islamist sect Boko Haram, that have heightened tensions in central Nigeria.

Local resident Bello Mohammed said he saw Christian youths rampaging through the streets following the bombing.

“They marched on the streets and set up a barricade on the road leading to the church. They also burned down shops owned by Muslims,” said Mohammed.

An AFP reporter saw three bodies lying in a street in the same district as the bombed church. Elsewhere, he saw a row of Muslim-owned shops that had apparently been torched by the rampaging youths.

Police commissioner for Plateau state, Emmanuel Dipo Ayeni could only confirm that three people were killed in the bomb attack.

Nigerian emergency services said 38 people had been injured in the bombing. Church leaders said a total of 50 wounded were being treated at two hospitals.

Plateau state’s spokesman Pam Ayuba appealed for calm saying the attack was “unprovoked.”

“Government is appealing for peace and calm, and people should not take the law into their hands,” said Ayuba.

Jos and its environs is one of the most volatile areas in Nigeria, where hundreds of people have been killed in a spate of sectarian clashes between Muslim and Christian ethnic groups.

It lies in the so-called middle belt region dividing the mainly Muslim north and predominately Christian south of Africa’s most populous nation.

The area has been caught in a deadly cycle of attacks and reprisals that have regularly flared up for years, killing thousands.

John Haruna, the minister who was leading the service in the Church of Christ in Nigeria, said the bomber “forced himself through the gate, into the church (yard) and the bomb exploded” only three metres from the walls of the church.

Witnesses said pieces of human flesh littered the church premises and dozens of parked cars had been destroyed.

Boko Haram has been blamed for a wave of increasingly bloody attacks in Africa’s most populous country in recent months, mostly in the Muslim-dominated north.

Incidents of attacks are also growing in the central region. Last Sunday several people were injured in an explosion near a church outside the capital, Abuja.

Boko Haram has targeted Christians on several previous occasions, notably the bombing of a Catholic church that killed 44 on Christmas Day near Abuja.

About The Great One

Am interested in science and philosophy as well as sports; cycling and tennis. Enjoy reading, writing, playing chess, collecting Spyderco knives and fountain pens.
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