Officials: 67 dead in northeast Nigeria attacks

Lagos (Nigeria), Nov 5 (AP) At least 67 people died in a wave of bombings and shootings carried out in northeast Nigeria overnight, officials said today, as frightened mourners left their homes to begin burying their dead. A radical Muslim sect known locally as Boko Haram claimed responsibility today for the attacks, which represent the most coordinated and wide-ranging assault yet in their increasingly bloody sectarian fight with Nigeria's weak central government. The sect, which wants the strict implementation of Shariah law across the nation of more than 160 million people, promised to carry out more attacks. The fighting centered around Damaturu, the capital of Yobe state, Nigerian Red Cross official Ibrahim Bulama said. The attack started Friday with a car bomb exploding outside a three-story building used as a military office and barracks in the city, with many uniformed security agents dying in the blast, Bulama said. Gunmen then went through the town, blowing up a First Bank PLC branch and attacking at least three police stations and some churches, leaving them in rubble, he said. Gunfire continued through the night and gunmen raided the village of Potiskum near the capital as well, witnesses said, leaving at least two people dead there. This morning, people began hesitantly leaving their homes, seeing the destruction left behind, including military and police vehicles burned by the gunmen, with the burned corpses of the drivers who died in their seats. The attacks around Damaturu came after four separate bombings struck Maiduguri, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) east. (AP)