KADUNA, nigeria — Suicide bombers killed 21 people in attacks on three churches in Nigeria during Sunday services, exacerbating religious tensions in a West African nation that is almost evenly divided between Muslims and Christians.
Authorities arrested one of the bombers who survived, said Kaduna State police chief Mohammed Abubakar Jinjiri, but he declined to say who police suspect was responsible for the bombings.
It was the third Sunday in a row that deadly attacks have been carried out against Christian churches in northern Nigeria. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the latest one, but suspicion fell on the radical Islamist sect Boko Haram because it took responsibility for the two earlier weekend assaults.
Boko Haram is waging an increasingly bloody fight with security agencies and the public in Nigeria. More than 560 people have been killed in violence blamed on the sect this year alone, according to an Associated Press count.
On Sunday, the suicide bombers drove explosive-laden cars to the gates of two churches in different parts of the city of Zaria and detonated them within minutes of each other. A similar attack targeted a church in the city of Kaduna about half an hour later, police said, prompting reprisals by Christian youths.
The attacks in the northern state of Kaduna killed a total of 21 people and wounded at least 100, said an official who works with a relief agency involved in rescue efforts. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to journalists.
Churches have been increasingly targeted by violence in Nigeria, with Boko Haram claiming some of the attacks. The situation has led churches in Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north to boost security in a nation of more than 160 million people.
