143 die in Nigeria terror attacks

Authorities said the militants,some of whom were suicide bombers,targeted four police stations,the headquarters of the countrys secret police State Security Service and an immigration office.

A hospital official said 143 bodies were piled up in a mortuary at Murtala Muhammed Specialist Hospital in Kano.

An official of the Red Cross,Nwakpa O Nwakpa said his aid agency is still collecting the bodies and taking the injured to hospitals.

The police are yet to come up with an official record,but police sources expressed fears that the number could go up to 150 as many of the injured were in critical condition.

A doctor at Aminu Kano Hospital said some of the injured persons were foreigners,including Indians who live close to the SSS headquarters.

Abul Qaqa,a spokesman of Islamic radical group Boko Haram,claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Nigerian troops were seen putting up checkpoints at various parts of the city amid fears of more attacks in Kano,a city of more than 9 million people.

The blasts,which numbered up to twenty,were followed by shoot-outs between the militants and security agencies,especially at the eastern Bompai district.

A reporter for a local television,Channels,Enenche Akogwu was among those killed,the station announced.

The Boko Haram spokesman said the attacks were triggered by the governments refusal to free its members from Kano prisons. Boko Haram,whose name means Western education is sacrilege,is waging a war to install an Islamic government and Sharia rule in the country.