US issues Nigeria terror warning

A Nigerian Islamist group is planning to bomb hotels in the capital Abuja, according to a warning issued by the US embassy there.

The announcement came as more than 100 people were killed in sectarian violence focused on the town of Damaturu in northern Nigeria over the weekend.

A police station and churches were among the locations attacked by Boko Haram, an Islamist extremist group that has recently stepped up the frequency and violence of its attacks, which usually aim at government and Christian targets.

US embassies issue relatively frequent warnings — for example in Nairobi last month — but this weekend’s Abuja notice was unusually specific.

It named a number of luxury hotels frequented by businessmen, politicians, diplomats and aid workers as possible targets.

In August a suicide bomber blew himself up killing 24 at the UN headquarters in Abuja, and in June six people were killed in a bomb attack on the police headquarters.

Some analysts have raised fears that Boko Haram may be seeking to link up with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and even Somalia’s Al Shabaab.