Boko Haram hits military bases

Bombs exploded on Tuesday at two major military bases on the outskirts of a central Nigerian city at the heart of ethnic and religious unrest in Africa's most populous nation, injuring an unknown number of people.

The attacks came as a radical Islamist sect known as Boko Haram launches increasingly bloody attacks on Nigeria's weak central government.

No one immediately claimed Tuesday's bombings, though suspicions quickly fell on the sect, even as state-run television aired a purported video on Tuesday from the group claiming it welcomed peace talks with the government.

The blasts struck at the Nigerian army's 1st Mechanised Division headquarters and the training command of the Nigerian air force near Kaduna, officials said. Soldiers and security agencies quickly shut down access to the two areas, with some seizing the cameras of working journalists.

A third explosion occurred near a highway overpass, though officials had no other details about it. It was unclear how many people were wounded in the attacks, though witnesses said they saw injured soldiers wearing blood-drenched uniforms after the blasts. At the 1st Mechanised Division, the glass windows of the division's headquarters had been blown apart by the power of the explosion.

Lieutenant Colonel Abubakar Edun, a spokesperson for the division, said two different cars loaded with explosives rammed through the headquarters' gates. Only one detonated, Edun said.

Major General Raphael Isa, an army spokesperson, said in a statement that one of the suicide bombers was dressed in a military uniform.

Soldiers guarding the gate opened fire on the man, who died from gunshot wounds.

“The suicide bomber was the only casualty,” Isa said.

Military officials in Nigeria often downplay casualties suffered by their personnel.

At the air force base, attackers tried and weren't able to get through a gate, said Air Commodore Yusuf Anas, an air force spokesperson. Anas said they threw an explosive about 500m from the base's outer fence.

No one was injured in the attack, Anas said.

“They use all these locally made bombs,” he said. “They use fertiliser and some things to generate some serious detonation.”

Kaduna, on Nigeria's dividing line between its largely Christian south and Muslim north, was at the heart of post-election violence in April. Mobs armed with machetes and poison-tipped arrows took over streets of Kaduna and the state's rural countryside after election officials declared President Goodluck Jonathan the winner. Followers of his main opponent, former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari, a Muslim, quickly alleged the vote had been rigged, though observers largely declared the vote fair.

Across the nation, at least 800 people died in that rioting, Human Rights Watch said. In the time since, heavily armed soldiers remain on guard on roadways throughout Kaduna. In December, an explosion at an auto parts market in Kaduna killed at least seven people. Though authorities said it came from a leaking gas cylinder, the Nigerian Red Cross later said in an internal report the blast came from a bomb.

The bombings in Kaduna come amid an increase in sectarian attacks by Boko Haram. Its members have been blamed for killing at least 270 people this year alone, according to an Associated Press count. The sect's violence comes as part of a campaign its leader Abubakar Shekau describes as avenging Muslim deaths and pushing for strict Shariah law across multi-ethnic Nigeria, a nation of more than 160-million people.

Tuesday's blasts also came after security agencies last week arrested a man they believe to be the sect's spokesperson.

click to enlarge GRISLY SCENE: People gather around a minibus struck in an apparent explosion as it sits near a highway overpass in Kaduna, Nigeria © NAMPA/AP