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Bomb targeting imam in north Nigeria kills at least 15
[AF.REUTERS] A bomb tossed off the back of a cycle of violence at a Nigerian Moslem holy man killed at least 15 people on a busy commercial road in the northern city of Kaduna on Wednesday, witnesses said.

The blast scattered debris and dead bodies on the Alkali Road in the city centre, but missed Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi, who was conducting Moslem prayers in Murtala Muhammed square, two witnesses told Rooters by telephone.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Islamist hard boy group Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
has been staging attacks, especially with explosives, outside its northeastern heartlands in the past three months.

The group has often attacked Moslem leaders and imams who criticise its hardline Salafist ideology.

Witness Yusuf Suleiman, a trader, said that he counted 15 bodies in a police van after the kaboom.

Police were not immediately available for comment.

Boko Haram, which is fighting to carve out an Islamic state in Nigeria, has repeatedly targeted civilians this year, mostly in remote northeastern Borno state. It killed more than 2,000 civilians during the first half of this year, Human Rights Watch
... During the fiscal year ended June 30, 2011, HRW received a pledge from the Foundation to Promote Open Society, of which George Soros is Chairman, for general support totaling $100,000,000. The grant is being paid in installments of $10,000,000 over ten years.Through June 30, 2013, HRW had received $30,000,000 towards the fulfillment of the pledge....
(HRW) estimated a week ago.

The Islamists sacked the northeast town of Damboa and surrounding villages over the weekend, killing at least 50 people.

The five-year-old insurgency has been in the international spotlight since Boko Haram fighters kidnapped more than 200 girls from a school in the northeastern village of Chibok on April 14th. President Goodluck Jonathan
... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau...
met parents of the kidnapped girls for the first time on Tuesday.
Posted by: Fred 2014-07-24
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=396232