Suicide Bombing Hits Another Church in Jos, Nigeria
JOS, NIGERIA (ANS) -- Compass Direct News (CDN) is reporting that an Islamic extremist ran a car full of explosives at a Pentecostal church in this Plateau state city this morning (Sunday, June 10, 2012), killing at least two Christians and injuring more than 40 others, military and police officials said.
CDN said that in Borno state also today, gunmen reportedly killed at least two Christians during church worship.
"The Boko Haram Islamic sect reportedly took responsibility for both assaults," said the CDN story. "The attack in Jos on Christ's Chosen Church of God was the second suicide bombing of a church in two Sundays and the third church bombing in Jos in six months.
"The explosion, which hit after a service had ended and church leaders and some children remained in the building, collapsed the roof of the sanctuary, witnesses said."
CDN went on to say that the death toll was expected to increase as injuries were severe. It marked the second consecutive Sunday that an extremist from the Boko Haram Islamist sect has been able to get through check-points to bomb a church, and reports followed of rioting by aggrieved youths that left further casualties.
Esther Solomon, a 31-year-old university student whose family's house sits directly opposite the church building, told Compass that a pastor, church elders and some children remained in the sanctuary at the time moment the bomb was detonated. She said she was in her family living room at the time.
"The impacts of the explosion forcefully opened the front door of our house and threw me into one of the bedrooms," Solomon said. "I just found myself in the bedroom, and when I rushed out, I found out that a suicide bomber had crashed into the church across the road."
