Bomber was a teenage boy - deputy state governor
* Islamist Boko Haram began insurgency in Maiduguri
* Sect often targets government, religious figures
By Ibrahim Mshelizza
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, July 13 (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed
five people at the central mosque in the northeastern Nigerian city of
Maiduguri on Friday, the military said, the latest attack in a region plagued
by Islamist Boko Haram insurgents.
The blast narrowly missed the deputy governor of Borno state,
Zanna Umar Mustapha, and Borno's Shehu (regional religious leader), Abubakar
Umar Garbai El-Kanemi, who were attending Friday prayers.
"The suicide bomber was about 15 years old ... Fortunately we
both escaped unhurt," Mustapha told reporters.
Six people were also injured in the attack, military spokesman
Sagir Musa told reporters.
Boko Haram has killed hundreds of people this year in an
insurgency against President Goodluck Jonathan, seeking to carve out an Islamic
state in Africa's most populous country and biggest oil producer.
The sect often targets government officials, religious figures and
places of worship, usually Christian churches.
Security experts believe Boko Haram's attacks on religious centres
in central and northern Nigeria are an attempt to provoke wider religious
conflict in the country.
Boko Haram claimed responsibility for attacks that killed more
than 65 people in volatile central Nigeria over the weekend, including a ruling
party senator, although security officials blamed localised ethnic clashes.
THREAT SPREADS
The attacks in Nigeria's "Middle Belt", where the
largely Christian south meets the mostly Muslim north, would be a new
development in the sect's insurgency and its greatest effort yet to divide the
country along religious lines.
Jonathan, a southern Christian, has come under intense pressure to
stem the spread of violence in the north, where his opponents say he is out of
touch.
He sacked his defence minister and national security adviser last
month, pledging to introduce new tactics to fight "terrorism" but
gave no details.
Critics say Jonathan's heavy-handed military approach has
aggravated the violence and there have been calls for him to engage with
northern power brokers, although Boko Haram has said several times it is not
interested in dialogue.
"We don't know what to do now because we thought our call for
dialogue would work but as you can see we have to think of other ways,"
Borno Deputy Governor Mustapha said.
Boko Haram first launched an uprising in 2009 but a military
crackdown stemmed the violence.
The group revived its insurgency in early 2010, hitting military
and government targets in and around Maiduguri.
Since Jonathan's election victory in April last year the sect's
violence has escalated and spread with attacks, including several suicide
bombings, in major cities across the north and the capital Abuja.
The United States last month named three alleged leaders of Boko
Haram as "foreign terrorists", the first time it has blacklisted
members of the sect.
Security sources say the sect has linked up with al Qaeda in the
Islamic Maghreb, sending a few dozen fighters to Mali for training.
(Writing by Joe Brock;
Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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