Photo: The bombed Shalom Church in Kaduna city (Compass Direct News)
Suspected Islamic extremists bombed three churches in Kaduna state June 17, the third consecutive Sunday that worship services in Nigeria have ended in lethal bloodshed, Compass Direct News reports. In Zaria, a suicide bomber crashed a car into a barricade at an Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) church around 9 a.m., setting off explosives that killed at least 24 people and wounded 125, according to one unconfirmed report citing an anonymous state official. A few minutes later, suspected Islamic extremists set off explosives at Christ the King Catholic Church in Zaria. An eyewitness said at at least 10 corpses were removed from the cathedral, with dozens of people injured, many critically. A short while later, a Pentecostal congregation called Shalom Church in Kaduna city was bombed, killing at least 10. Retaliatory attacks reportedly killed several others. Andrew Gani-Ikilami, executive director of the Wusasa Business School in Zaria, and Dr. Taylor Adeyemi, medical director at St. Luke's (Anglican) Hospital Wusasa in Zaria, confirmed that many of the victims arriving at the hospital were children. The attacks are believed to have been carried out by the Islamict sect Boko Haram, which took responsibility for similar attacks in Plateau and Borno states on June 10 and in Bauchi state on June 3.
