Americas

Americas

U.S. condemns deadly attacks on Nigerian major newspaper

27 April 2012 03:49 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA.The U.S. government on Thursday strongly condemned the deadly attacks on a leading national newspaper in Nigeria, which have claimed dozens of lives, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

"Obviously we strongly condemned yesterday’s attacks on the two offices of the newspaper This Day in Abuja and in Kaduna," said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland at a briefing. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the loved and those who were killed or injured."

"This is an attack not only on innocent people, but on free speech itself in Nigeria," she told reporters, calling for a full investigation in holding the perpetrators accountable.

At least 40 people could have been killed in powerful explosions that hit the offices of Thisday Newspaper, a leading national newspaper in Nigeria, in central north Abuja and Kaduna state on Thursday, rescue officials and witnesses told Xinhua.

So far, there is no immediate claim of responsibility from any group. But the radical sect known as Boko Haram has been carrying out a wave of attacks in the west African nation recently, and there is speculation that the explosions might be its work.

Nuland said that the United States has not made any decision on whether Boko Haram was behind the attacks.

"But that said, we share the concerns about the threat that Boko Haram poses," she noted.

"And this is among the reasons that we cooperate so strongly with Nigeria in terms of not only security support, but also political and economic support in the north so that vulnerable populations in the north of Nigeria can’t be sort of attracted and coerced by Boko Haram," she added.