Nigeria Church Bombings Kill 21, Spark Reprisals

Religious clashes have left dozens of people dead in a state that straddles Nigeria's Muslim north and Christian south. At least 21 people were killed when militants bombed three churches in Kaduna provinces yesterday. A suicide bomber was behind one attack while another was the work of militants throwing bombs into a church from outside, the Guardian reports. Those attackers were caught and killed by a mob and Christian reprisals against Muslims are believed to have killed at least seven more people.

After the attacks, Christian youths dragged Muslims out of their vehicles and killed them in retaliation, according to witnesses who spoke of seeing many bodies at a roadblock. Christians have been patient, "but retaliation is the only solution for now because the government fails to address the insurgency caused by the terrorists," one Pentecostal Christian tells the Christian Science Monitor. The radical Boko Haram sect has claimed responsibility for the church bombings. (More Nigeria stories.)