Four killed in Nigeria gun attacks

Gunmen suspected of being members of a radical Islamist sect have killed at least four people - including a six-year-old girl - in recent attacks in Nigeria's volatile north-east, authorities said today.

In the north-eastern city of Potiskum, gunmen opened fire on a policeman and his family, killing the policeman's six-year-old daughter, Yobe State police spokesman Toyin Gbadegeshin said.

Early today, gunmen killed three people when they attacked a police station, a church and a bank in the border town of Dikwa in the north-east.

Joint Security Task Force spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa said a local politician, a police officer and civilian were killed along with three gunmen.

Lt Col Musa blamed the attack on members of the Boko Haram sect.

Mr Gbadegeshin also blamed Boko Haram, a group waging an increasingly bloody fight with security agencies and the public. More than 380 people have been killed in violence blamed on the sect this year alone, according to an Associated Press count.

The attacks follow a suicide bombing in the city of Kaduna yesterday. That attack killed at least 38 people in a massive blast which rattled a city long at the centre of religious, ethnic and political violence in the nation.

While no-one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, suspicion immediately fell on Boko Haram. Some fear the attack could further inflame tensions around Kaduna, a region on the dividing line between Nigeria's largely Christian south and Muslim north.

AP