Nigeria: Death toll in Jos church attack reaches 19

[News_Editor]

Nigeria: Death toll in Jos church attack reaches 19

2012-03-13 21:31:54 GMT+7 (ICT)

JOS, Nigeria (BNO NEWS) -- A person who was injured on Sunday when a suicide car bomber targeted a Catholic church in the Nigerian city of Jos has died, raising the death toll to nineteen, officials said on Tuesday.

The attack happened on Sunday when a car bomber was stopped at the gates to the St. Finbar's Church in the Rayfield area of the restive central Nigerian city. The explosion happened after the driver refused to open his trunk, about 10 minutes into the mass.

It was not immediately known who was behind Sunday's attack, but the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram has been blamed for most of the region's terrorist attacks. It seeks the imposition of an extremist stance of the Shariah law, which is a Muslim code of conduct. The group's name, in the local language of Hausa, roughly translates as 'Western religion is sacrilegious' or 'non-Islamic religion is a sin.'

On Christmas Day, at least 40 people were killed when Boko Haram militants attacked Christians in the Nigerian cities of Madalla, Jos, Gadaka and Damaturu. Most of the victims died in Madalla, near the capital of Abuja, when a suicide bomber targeted Christians who were leaving the St Theresa's Catholic Church after a morning service.

In response to the deadly attack, Pope Benedict XVI expressed his sadness about the "senseless acts" which he said left Nigerian lands "drenched with innocent blood." He also expressed his closeness to the Christian community in Nigeria, which was also hit by a series of bomb blasts on Christmas Eve 2010, killing 80 people.

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