Nigeria: At least 120 dead and 270 wounded in suicide attack on a mosque, suspected Boko Haram islamists
At least 120 people were killed and 270 others wounded on Friday when two suicide bombers blew themselves up and gunmen opened fire during weekly prayers at the mosque of one of Nigeria’s top Islamic leaders.
The attack at the Grand Mosque in Kano, the biggest city in the mainly Muslim north of the country, came just as Friday prayers had started.
The mosque is attached to the palace of the Emir of Kano Muhammad Sanusi II, Nigeria’s second most senior Muslim cleric, who last week urged civilians to take up arms against Boko Haram.
The blasts came after a bomb attack was foiled against a mosque in the northeastern city of Maiduguri earlier on Friday, five days after two female suicide bombers killed over 45 people in the city.
National police spokesman Emmanuel Ojukwu told AFP that the bombers blew themselves up in quick succession then “gunmen opened fire on those who were trying to escape.”