Radical sect touts killings in Nigeria

KANO, Nigeria -- A coordinated series of bombings and gun attacks Friday claimed by a radical Islamist sect killed at least seven people in the largest city in Nigeria's Muslim north, witnesses said, threatening to engulf the whole region in violence.

Gunfire echoed through the city late into the night, as security forces turned away emergency officials from sites of the attacks. The scope of the assault suggested that the death toll would rise.

The attacks were also the first major assault by members of the Boko Haram sect on Kano, a city of more than 9 million people that holds the many dominant political and religious leaders for Muslims in Nigeria.

The attacks began at 5 p.m. Friday, after afternoon prayers as workers began to leave their offices in the sprawling, dusty city.

A massive blast at a regional police headquarters shook cars miles away. The explosion came from a suicide car bomber who drove into the headquarters compound and detonated his explosives, deputy superintendent of police Aminu Ringim said.

Three blasts struck other police stations around the city, another government official said. Gunfire also echoed through the streets. Another explosion struck the local headquarters of the State Security Service, Nigeria's secret police, witnesses and state-run television said.

Inmates at the regional police headquarters fled amid gunfire, witnesses said. One man said he saw the bodies of at least three police officers and a local journalist there.

State authorities declared a 24-hour curfew as residents hid in their homes amid the fighting.

A Boko Haram spokesman claimed responsibility for the attacks, in a message to journalists. He said they came as the state government refused to release Boko Haram members held by police.

The assault comes as Nigeria's weak central government faces a rising threat from the group. The sect has carried out increasingly sophisticated and bloody attacks in its campaign to implement strict Shariah law across Nigeria, a multiethnic nation of more than 160 million people.