U.S. pledges to help find Nigeria bombers

The United States promised to help Nigeria find those responsible for a wave of Christmas bombings that killed dozens in the oil-rich African nation.

"We have been in contact with Nigerian officials about what appear to be terrorist acts and pledge to assist them in bringing those responsible to justice," according to a statement by White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.

Coordinated blastsAt least 35 people died after a bombing at a church in Madalla, near the Nigerian capital, Abuja, and dozens more were wounded as radical Muslim militants launched coordinated attacks across Africa's most populous nation within hours of one another. Four more people were killed in other violence blamed on the group known as Boko Haram.

The first explosion Sunday occurred as services were ending at St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla. Yemi Ajayi, a police spokesman, said at least 20 people were killed. Another blast, at a church in the central city of Jos, capital of Plateau state, killed a policeman, said Pam Ayuba, a spokesman for the state government.

A suspected suicide bomber rammed a car into the entrance of the State Security Service building in the northeastern city of Damaturu, killing four people and the bomber, said Victor Ebhaleme, a spokesman for the military task force in charge of security in the region.

Pope Benedict XVI on Monday called the Christmas Day attacks an "absurd gesture. "Holy Christmas inspires us in a particularly strong way to pray to God so that the hands of the violent are stopped, [hands] that sow death in the world . . . " the pope said.

Meanwhile Monday in Madalla, women returned to clean the blood from St. Theresa Catholic Church and one man wept uncontrollably amid its debris as a Nigerian Christian association demanded protection for its churches.

Crowds gathered among the burned-out cars in the church's dirt parking lot yesterday, angry over the attack and fearful that the group will target more of their places of worship.

It was the second year in a row that the extremists seeking to install Islamic Shariah law across the country of 160 million staged such attacks. Last year, a series of bombings on Christmas Eve killed 32 people in Nigeria.

At least 52 people were wounded in the blast, said Slaku Luguard, a coordinator with Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency. Victims filled the cement floors of a nearby government hospital, some crying in pools of their own blood.

Claiming responsibility

After the bombings, a Boko Haram spokesman using the nom de guerre Abul-Qaqa claimed responsibility for the attacks in an interview with The Daily Trust, the newspaper of record across Nigeria's Muslim north. The sect has used the newspaper in the past to communicate with the public.

"There will never be peace until our demands are met," the newspaper quoted the spokesman as saying. "We want all our brothers who have been incarcerated to be released; we want full implementation of the Sharia system and we want democracy and the constitution to be suspended."

At least 72 people have been killed in fighting since Dec. 22 between Nigerian security forces and the militant group in the northeastern city of Damaturu, officials said.