Nigerian mall blast leaves 21 dead

Attack blamed on Boko Haram militants also wounds 17

Smoke billows from a shopping mall Wednesday in the Nigerian capital of Abuja after a bomb blamed on Islamic extremists exploded, killing at least 21 people. The bomb, which went off as Nigerians prepared to watch their national soccer team play Argentina in the World Cup, is the latest in a series of deadly attacks attributed to the Boko Haram militant group.

Smoke billows from a shopping mall Wednesday in the Nigerian capital of Abuja after a bomb blamed on Islamic extremists exploded, killing at least 21 people. The bomb, which went off as Nigerians prepared to watch their national soccer team play Argentina in the World Cup, is the latest in a series of deadly attacks attributed to the Boko Haram militant group.

Thursday, June 26, 2014

ABUJA, Nigeria -- An explosion blamed on Islamic extremists rocked a shopping mall in Nigeria's capital Wednesday, and police said at least 21 people were killed.

The blast came as Nigerians were preparing to watch their country's Super Eagles play Argentina in the World Cup soccer tournament in Brazil. Many shops at the mall in Abuja have televisions, but it was unclear if the explosion was timed to coincide with the match, which started an hour later.

Last week, at least 14 died in a bomb blast at a World Cup viewing site in Damaturu, a state capital in the northeast.

After Wednesday's bombing at Emab Plaza, in Abuja's upscale Wuse 2 suburb, billows of black smoke could be seen from a mile away.

"I heard the explosion and the building shaking," said Shuaibu Baba, who was at the mall Wednesday. He said he rushed downstairs to find that the driver who had dropped him off a few minutes earlier was dead.

Police Superintendent Frank Mba said 17 people were wounded, and 21 bodies were recovered.

Soldiers shot and killed one suspect as he tried to escape on a power bike, and police detained a second suspect, government spokesman Mike Omeri said in a statement.

One witness said he thought the bomb was dropped at the entrance to the mall by a motorcyclist, but Mba said it was too early to say.

The government urged calm and said it was doing everything possible to "to check the activities of insurgents."

Wednesday's bombing is the latest in a series of violent attacks blamed on the Boko Haram militant group. Nigerian security forces appear incapable of curtailing the near-daily attacks concentrated in the northeast, where the extremists have their stronghold.

The militants have recently spread their attacks to the capital, which is in the center of the country. Two separate explosions in Abuja in April killed more than 120 people and wounded about 200 at a busy bus station. Both were claimed by Boko Haram, which has threatened further attacks.

On Tuesday night, extremists in the northeast attacked a military checkpoint and killed at least 21 soldiers and five civilians, witnesses and a hospital worker said Wednesday.

A soldier who escaped said the militants also abducted several of his colleagues in the attack near Damboa village, 53 miles from Maiduguri, capital of Borno state.

The extremists attacked in a convoy of more than 30 trucks armed with anti-aircraft guns, rocket launchers and powerful submachine guns, while the soldiers had only AK-47 assault rifles, said the soldier, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to reporters.

He said he saw at least 16 of his colleagues gunned down before he ran away. A worker at Maiduguri's main hospital said he counted the corpses of 21 soldiers taken to the morgue.

Boko Haram attracted international condemnation for the April mass abductions of more than 200 schoolgirls, and it is blamed for this week's abductions of another 91 people -- 31 boys and 60 girls and women.

The group wants to install an Islamic state in Nigeria, a West African nation of 170 million people almost equally divided between Muslims, who are dominant in the north, and Christians in the south.

Nigeria's military and government claim to be winning the war in the 5-year-old insurgency, but the tempo and deadliness of attacks have increased this year. More than 2,000 people have died so far in 2014, compared with an estimated 3,600 killed over the past four years.

A Section on 06/26/2014