Carnage in Nigerian terror attack that left at least 178 dead

Destroyed police headquarters in Nigeria's northern city of Kano Jan. 22, following a bomb attack on Friday. Photo by REUTERS/Stringer

The Islamist attacks that began Friday continued today in the Nigerian city of Kano. So far, at least 178 have been killed.

The attacks, carried out by Boko Haram, which means “Western education is sacrilege” and wants to impose sharia law on the 160 million living in Nigeria, were the deadliest by the organization and suggest to intelligence officials that Boko Haram is getting support from Al Qaeda.

The scenes are gruesome. As described by the Los Angeles Times:

An immigration official, who declined to be named, said he was wounded when Boko Haram gunmen attacked, killing two of his colleagues. He survived by pretending to be dead.

“They shot me on the right shin, shattering my bone and another bullet pierced my shoulder,” he said. “I remained motionless and they left me for dead.”

In hospital morgues, bodies were piled up, and throngs of relatives of those missing waited fearfully.

“We now have 162 bodies deposited here by relief workers,” an attendant said an attendant in a morgue, where corpses were piled on the blood-splattered floor nearby. “The figure is bound to increase, as the rescue teams keep recovering bodies from different parts of the city.”

Read the rest here.