Bomb blasts hit Nigeria churches during Christmas prayers
Abuja, 25 Dec – (ANA) - At least 26 people have been killed in two Nigerian cities following bomb blasts targeting Christmas Day church services amid potentially co-ordinated violence in several Nigerian states.
Some 25 people died and more were hurt in an attack at St Theresa's Church in Madalla near Nigeria's capital Abuja.
The Islamist group Boko Haram said it carried out the attack.
A second explosion shortly afterwards hit a church in the central city of Jos, killing at least one person.
There have also been three attacks in Yobe state in northern Nigeria, targeting a church, the police and the army.
Two hit the town of Damaturu, and a third struck Gadaka. Yobe state has been the epicentre of violence between security forces and Boko Haram militants.
Local observers say it is beginning to look like a co-ordinated offensive by Islamic militants.
Boko Haram - whose name means "Western education is forbidden" - often targets security forces and state institutions.
The group carried out an August 2011 suicide attack on the UN headquarters in Abuja, in which more than 20 people were killed.
Nearly 70 people have died this week in fighting between Nigerian forces and Boko Haram gunmen in the country's north-east.
Officials at the local hospital said the condition of many of the injured was serious, and they were seeking help from bigger medical facilities.
More than 1,000 have been killed in religious and ethnic violence in Jos over the past two years and correspondents say there will be fears that the latest attack could spark wider conflict.
A string of bomb blasts in Jos on Christmas Eve 2010 were claimed by Boko Haram.
Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi condemned the latest attacks as blind, absurd "terrorist violence" that enflames hate. (ANA))

FA/ANA/25 December 2011---------