Africa

Africa

Nigerian Islamists threaten attacks on northern city

17 December 2011 18:53 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Islamist sect Boko Haram on Saturday threatened to launch attacks on northern Nigeria’s largest city of Kano if the security services continue to arrest its members, APA reports quoting AFP.

Sect leader Abubakar Shekau claimed in the letter sent to the state government and the media that Boko Haram members have been arrested over the past five months on the pretext that they were thieves and armed robbers.

"We are therefore compelled to write this letter to inform Kano residents of this development so that when we launch attacks in the city as we have been doing in Maiduguri, they should not blame us," Shekau said in a letter emailed from an address previously used by the sect.

The northeastern city of Maiduguri has been the epicentre of a wave of attacks in northern Nigeria blamed on Boko Haram.

The threat comes after two attacks targeting the military and the police killed at least four members of the security forces in Kano.

Gunmen on Thursday attacked a military-run school outside the city, killing at least three air force personnel.

And on Friday, gunmen opened fire on a police checkpoint on the outskirts of the city, resulting in a shootout which left one policeman dead and another seriously wounded, Kano state police spokesman Magaji Majia told AFP.