Death toll rises from Nigeria church bombings

Jos, Nigeria (CNN) -- The death toll from the worst of several church bombings Christmas Day in Nigeria has reached 32, an emergency official told CNN Monday.
Another of the bombings killed at least three people, officials said.
Blasts were reported at churches in five cities Sunday. A day later, details from some areas were still not fully clear.
The extremist Boko Haram sect claimed responsibility, two government officials said.
The group has targeted Christians in the past, as well as those Muslims who the group's members consider insufficiently Islamic.
The blasts mark the second holiday season that bombs have hit Christian houses of worship in the west African nation.
Olusegun Okebiorun, controller-general of Nigeria's fire service, told CNN Boko Haram claimed responsibility in a message sent to media in Nigeria.
He vowed the government is doing all it can to ensure that such attacks don't occur again.
Government spokesman Reuben Abiti also confirmed that Boko Haram had claimed responsibility.
In a statement issued late Sunday, President Goodluck Jonathan called the bombings "a dastardly act that must attract the rebuke of all peace-loving Nigerians."
Okebiorun said 32 people were killed in Madalla, and 65 were wounded. Some of the wounded have been treated and released, he said.
The other cities struck Sunday included Jos, Kano, and Damaturu and Gadaka, said journalist Hassan John, who witnessed the carnage in Jos.
Officials said three people were killed in the Damaturu blast, John said.
Also in Damaturu, a northern town in Yobe state, a police station and a state security building were bombed, an aid worker said. The worker asked not to be named for security reasons.
Nwakpa Okorie, a spokesman for the Nigerian Red Cross, said the some of the wounded were taken to the capital Abuja for treatment.
"The security agents have secured the streets close to the bombed areas ... in Madalla, Jos and Dematuru," he said Sunday.
Jonathan said his government "will not relent in its determination to bring to justice all the perpetrators of today's acts of violence and all others before now." And in Washington, the White House said U.S. officials would help Nigeria pursue those behind "what initially appear to be terrorist acts."
"We condemn this senseless violence and tragic loss of life on Christmas Day," White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a written statement. "We offer our sincere condolences to the Nigerian people and especially those who lost family and loved ones."
The first explosion Sunday struck near a Roman Catholic church in Madalla, west of Abuja, Nigeria's capital, the National Emergency Management Agency said. Church officials were trying to get a picture of what happened in the city.
The Rev. Michael Ekpenyong, secretary general of the country's Catholic Secretariat, said the church that was bombed was "not a big church, but lots of people attend."
Photos from the scene showed burned-out cars and at least three bodies on the ground, one covered with a blanket, at the rural church.
Usman Abdallah Baba, who witnessed the bombing, said local people immediately blamed Boko Haram.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the acts "in the strongest terms," his office said in a statement. He expressed his condolences to the Nigerian people and reiterated a call "for an end to all acts of sectarian violence in the country."
In 2010, five churches in Jos were attacked while residents were celebrating Christmas Eve. The blasts killed dozens in Jos, which lies on a faith-based fault line between the Muslim-dominated north and the mainly Christian south.
On Sunday, two blasts targeted the Mountain of Fire Ministries church in Jos, northeast of the capital, said John. No one was killed in that bombing, which John called a "miracle" - but a police officer who got into a gun battle with the attackers died of his wounds later, John said, citing officials.
The second church, in Jos, was hit by two explosions when young men threw bombs, John said. Police responded quickly and exchanged gunfire with the attackers, who wounded at least one of the police officers, he said.
The injured officer was rushed to the Jos University teaching hospital for medical attention, but died of his wounds, John said. The attackers fled into the crowd and disappeared after the attack, John said.
Police arrested four people and recovered four unexploded devices, Nigerian state television reported.
Nigeria is Africa's most populous nation and has the world's sixth-largest Christian population -- about 80.5 million people as of 2010, according to a report published this month by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life in Washington. That makes the country just over 50% Christian, according to the Pew figures.
The attacks followed two days of clashes between militants and security forces in northern Nigeria. Lt. Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika, the Nigerian army chief of staff, said the clashes left three soldiers dead and several more wounded.
The fighting began Thursday between Boko Haram militants and the military in the Yobe state town of Damaturu, Ihejirika said.
"There was a major encounter with the Boko Haram in Damaturu," Ihejirika said Friday. "We lost three of our soldiers, seven were wounded. But we killed over 50 of their members."
Boko Haram translates from the local Hausa as "Western education is outlawed." The group has morphed into an insurgency responsible for dozens of attacks in Nigeria in the last two years.
Boko Haram's targets include police outposts and churches as well as places associated with "Western influence."