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Eight more killed in seeming copycat fashion

Published:Wednesday | June 22, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Unidentified women react to the sight of dead bodies in Dogo Nahwa, Nigeria, on Monday, March 8, 2010. More than 200 people, most of them Christians, were slaughtered on Sunday in central Nigeria, according to residents, aid groups and journalists. The local government gave a figure more than twice that amount, but offered no casualty list or other information to substantiate it. - ap


KATSINA (AP):

Gunmen in northern Nigeria have killed eight people in attacks that resembled previous strikes by a feared Muslim sect, police said yesterday, though authorities said copycats may have been responsible for most of the killings.

Monday's attacks in Nigeria's restive north followed a threat last week by the radical Boko Haram sect that it would escalate attacks in the region.

The sect is responsible for a string of killings which have targeted security officers, community leaders and clerics in Nigeria's northeast. Most of their attacks have occurred in the city of Maiduguri. Last week, the group expanded its reach with a suicide bombing on police headquarters in the capital of Abuja.

Sect responsibility

But police said yesterday they believe the sect is only responsible for one of Monday's killings.

Police in Maiduguri said motorcycle-mounted gunmen from the group shot dead an officer of the Nigerian Civil Defence Corps on Monday. The corps helps the police to prevent crime and its officers are unarmed.

Police spokesman Lawal Abdullahi said the gunmen followed the officer after he closed from work and shot him dead at his house, a typical example of the drive-by killings that have become Boko Haram's signature.

Police said they doubt that Boko Haram was responsible for a separate attack that left six people dead in the town of Kankara, more than 440 miles (700 kilometres) from Maiduguri.