Planned attacks kill 143 in Nigeria

KANO, Nigeria — A coordinated attack by a radical Islamist sect in north Nigeria’s largest city killed at least 143 people, a hospital official said Saturday, representing the extremist group’s deadliest assault since beginning its campaign of terror in Africa’s most populous nation.

Soldiers and police officers swarmed Kano’s streets as Nigeria’s president again promised the sect known as Boko Haram would “face the full wrath of the law.” But the uniformed bodies of security agents that filled a Kano hospital mortuary again showed the sect can strike at will against the country’s weak central government.

Friday’s attacks hit police stations, immigration offices and the local headquarters of Nigeria’s secret police in Kano, a city of more than 9 million people that remains an important political and religious center in the country’s Muslim north. A suicide bomber detonated a car loaded with powerful explosives outside a regional police headquarters, tearing its roof away and blowing out windows as its members escaped jail cells.

State authorities enforced a 24hour curfew in the city, with many remaining home as soldiers and police patrolled the streets and setup roadblocks. Gunshots echoed through some areas of the city.

A Boko Haram spokesman using the nom de guerre Abul-qaqa claimed responsibility for the attacks in a message to journalists Friday. He said the attack came because the state government refused to release Boko Haram members held by the police.

The U.S. Embassy said it had canceled all staff travel to northern Nigeria after Friday’s attacks.

President Goodluck Jonathan also condemned the attack.

“I want to reassure Nigerians ... that all those involved in that dastardly act would be made to face the full wrath of the law,” Jonathan said in a statement.

Authorities blamed Boko Haram for at least 510 killings last year alone, according to an AP count.