Abuja: Two militants were killed and two
soldiers injured when a car bomb went off in Nigeria on Saturday
during a raid in an area believed to be a hideout of suspected
radical Muslim group Boko Haram.
The raid took place in the city of Kano where multiple
bombings and attack killed more than 185 people on January
20, said Brigadier General Iliyasu Abba, a spokesman for the
country's Joint Task Force (JTF) deployed to combat militancy
in Nigeria's northern region.
According to him, the sect members intentionally
detonated the bomb in order to cause casualty.
He said four women suspected to be wives of the sect
members and eight children were detained after the gun duel
between the suspected Boko Haram members and soldiers.
Insurgency by members of Boko Haram has been growing in
Nigeria.
Boko Haram, whose name translates to Western education is
a sin, claim to be waging a war to install an Islamic state
and the rule of Sharia in Africa's largest oil producing
nation.
A suicide bomb attack by the group at the United Nations
headquarters in Abuja in July killed 26 people.
The group has also bombed churches and attacked mosques
making its motive somehow hazy.
Nigeria, with a population of 150-million, has large
number of Muslim and Christian population. Muslims predominant
in the north of the country while Christians mostly live in
the South.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, March 25, 2012, 00:23