Five blasts in Nigeria, Boko Haram claims responsibility

The militant Islamist Boko Haram group, that wants to impose Islamic sharia law across the country, claimed responsibility for Sunday church bombs.   

Boko Haram spokesman Abu Qaqa claimed the bombings in a statement to the journalists' association of Maiduguri, capital of the group's heartland. 

Two explosions were heard in the northern Nigerian city of Damaturu on Sunday, residents said, making a total of five explosions to hit the country on Christmas Day.    

A third blast struck a Nigerian church in the northeastern town of Gadaka on Sunday, wounding many, residents said.

The explosion happened hours after a blast killed dozens of people at a church just outside the capital Abuja. Another church explosion in the central city of Jos caused damage but no serious casualties, officials said.    

AFP reported on Sunday that a suspected bomb blast on Christmas Day near a church outside the Nigerian capital has killed at least 32 people.    

A Reuters reporter at the scene said the whole area around the church was cordoned off by police. The reporter saw thousands of angry youths set up burning road blocks on the main highway from Abuja leading to Nigeria's largely Muslim north.    

Police and the military tried to disperse them by firing live rounds into the air with tear gas amid chaotic scenes.     
Islamist sect Boko Haram has been blamed for dozens of bombings and shootings in the north, and has claimed responsibility for two bombings in Abuja this year, including Nigeria's first suicide bombing on the U.N. headquarters in August that killed at least 23 people.