A radical Islamist sect published a video today showing a smiling suicide bomber drive into the offices of a major Nigerian newspaper and blow himself up, an attack that killed at least three people and made journalists a new target of the extremist group.
The 18-minute video posted on YouTube includes new threats against journalists and major Nigerian newspapers, as well as the Hausa language services of Voice of America and Radio France International. An unnamed male speaker also threatens new attacks against Nigeria's weak central government, saying security forces continue to hold the wives and children of its followers hostage.u00a0
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"If they destroy one brick from our building, we will destroy 500 from theirs," the man says in Hausa. The video shows the suicide bomber drive a sport utility vehicle on April 26 into the Abuja offices of ThisDay, an influential newspaper. As a man softly prays, the car blows up, sending a massive fireball into the air. The attack killed at least three people at the offices in Nigeria's capital.
A separate bombing at offices the newspaper shared with other publications in the city of Kaduna killed at least four people. In the video, a narrator blames ThisDay for publishing inaccurate and biased information about the sect known as Boko Haram. In particular, the man mentions a 2002 article published by ThisDay suggesting the Prophet Muhammad would have married a Miss World pageant contestant.
The video also shows the photograph of the reporter who wrote the article, which sparked riots in Kaduna that killed dozens. "The punishment for that is the person should be killed, especially when you're talking about Prophet Muhammad," the man says. The reporter who wrote the article later fled Nigeria for Europe. u00a0
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