Three killed in Boko Haram attacks in northern Nigeria

Feb 7, 2012, 15:51 GMT

Abuja - Three people have died in bomb blasts by the radical Islamist group Boko Haram in northern Nigeria, police said Tuesday.

Police told dpa that the owner of a pharmacy in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, and two of his employees, were killed when bombs went off.

In the city of Kano, two police stations where Boko Haram members were being detained were also targeted. Police said there were no deaths.

Boko Haram claimed responsibility for both attacks, which occurred as residents were observing Eid-el-Mulud, the Muslim festival marking the birth of the Prophet Mohammed.

'Celebrations were cut short because of these attacks. There were explosions and gunshots coming from the northeastern part of the city,' said witness Farida Tahir, who spoke to dpa by telephone from Kano.

Police raided a Boko Haram hideout in the city on Tuesday, killing eight gunmen and seizing weapons and explosives. Several gunmen were arrested in the raid, Nigerian media reported.

In a separate incident, a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb at a Nigerian military base in the central city of Kaduna. A police spokesman said the bomber was the only casualty.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

Attacks on January 20 in Kano, the country's second-largest city, left 186 people dead. Despite an ongoing dusk-to-dawn curfew, the city and its environs still suffer lethal attacks.

Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation and one of its largest oil exporters, is under pressure to contain Boko Haram's growing insurgency and avoid slipping into a civil war.