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Nigeria's Abuja hit by blasts with at least 18 dead | |
(about 3 hours later) | |
A series of explosions on the outskirts of the Nigerian capital Abuja have killed at least 18 people, officials say. | |
The first two struck Kuje township: one by a suicide bomber near a police station, the other a bomb at a market. | |
Another bomb exploded at a bus stop in Nyanya. | |
No group has said it carried out the attacks yet but suspicion has fallen on Boko Haram Islamists, who targeted Nyanya last year. | |
The militants, who are fighting to carve out an Islamist state, has mostly focused their campaign on the north-east. | |
More than 40 people were injured in the blasts on Friday night, which security officials described as co-ordinated. | |
Explosives experts have been combing the scene for bomb fragments. | |
Police have also stepped up stop-and-search activities in Abuja following the blasts, AFP reported. | |
Nigeria's President, Muhammadu Buhari, who came to power vowing to eradicated Boko Haram, condemned the attack. | |
"My heart goes out to the families of the dead and injured in Abuja, and other parts of the country. Our will cannot be broken; evil will never triumph over good. We will be rid of this evil stalking our land," he tweeted. | |
Some 17,000 people are said to have been killed since Boko Haram began its insurgency in 2009. | |
This year, security forces have managed to reclaim most of the territory captured by Boko Haram fighters and freed a number of people kidnapped but militant attacks have intensified. |