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Friday's mosque attack killed 100, wounded 135 in Nigeria's Kano: state governor
Security and emergency agency staff investigate the Kano Central Mosque bombing scene in Kano, November 29, 2014. PHOTO BY REUTERS/Stringer
29/11/2014
KANO, Nigeria (Reuters) - A total of 100 people were killed in Friday's coordinated attack on the central mosque of north Nigeria's biggest city of Kano and 135 people were wounded, the governor of Kano state said on Saturday.
Rabiu Musa Kwankaso was speaking to reporters after visiting one of the hospitals treating the victims. Officials had said on Friday that 81 people had been killed in the attack.
Gunmen set off three bombs and opened fire on worshippers at the main mosque in Kano in an attack that bore the hallmarks of Islamist Boko Haram militants, although the attack has not yet been claimed.
Boko Haram, a Sunni jihadist movement fighting to revive a medieval Islamic caliphate in northern Nigeria, regards the traditional Islamic religious authorities in Nigeria with disdain.
The targeted mosque is next to the palace of the emir of Kano, who is the second highest Islamic authority in Africa's most populous country and a vocal critic of Boko Haram.
In a bloody campaign of nearly six years the group has also targeted churches, schools, police stations, military bases and government buildings.
After Friday's attack President Goodluck Jonathan said the perpetrators would be tracked down.
(Reporting by Nnekule Ikemfuna; Writing by Julia Payne; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
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