KANO, Nigeria, Feb 6 (Reuters) - A powerful blast followed by sustained gunfire shook a police station in Nigeria's northern city of Kano on Monday, police and witnesses said, in the latest assault by suspected Islamist militants on the country's second biggest urban centre.

A Reuters reporter heard the blast and the gunfire, which was still under way after more than an hour. Local police chief Ibrahim Idris confirmed that gunmen had attacked a police station in the Sharada industrial area but had no further details.

Kano was the scene of the deadliest attack by the Islamist sect Boko Haram, in which 186 people were killed last month. (Reporting by Mike Oboh and Adamu Abuh; Writing by Tim Cocks; editing by Tim Pearce)

http://mobile.reuters.com/regional/article/idAFL5E8D646920120206?edition=af

Maiduguri was also hit!

Police station stormed in Kano, bomb blasts in Maiduguri 

Gunmen, suspected to be militants of the Boko Haram sect have attacked Sharada police station in Nigeria’s flashpoint city of Kano, where multiple bomb and gun attacks killed over 200 people on 20 January.

Multiple blasts have also rocked a market in Maiduguri, the base of Islamist group Boko Haram, residents said. Casualty figures are unknown at this time.

“I had just arrived home in time for the curfew when I heard an explosion coming from around the police station. Shortly, gunshots followed. From what I heard it sounded like a shootout,” said Bala Salisu from Kano’s Sharada district.

Kano police spokesman Magaji Majia told AFP he had heard reports of the attack on the Sharada police station, but said the circumstances were not yet clear.

Residents of Maiduguri, east of Kano, also reported multiple blasts at the Gamboru market that set several vehicles and shops on fire.

Maiduguri is seen as a stronghold of Boko Haram, the Islamist group blamed for a series of recent attacks in Nigeria that have killed more than 200 people already this year.

“I heard five explosions around the market and plumes of of black smoke… filled the air. The market is still on fire. Soldiers and policeman have taken over the whole area,” said resident Aisha Goni.

Colonel Victor Ebhaleme, operations chief for the Joint Task Force in Maiduguri, a special military unit set up to crack down on Boko Haram, confirmed the explosions at the market but declined to give details.

Gunmen late Sunday shot dead a secret police officer in front of his house in Nigeria’s northeastern city of Damaturu, a resident said.

The police confirmed the shooting, but said they were not sure if he was killed.

The state security service officer was “sitting outside his house with some friends this evening when two gun came through the back street in Jeri district of the town and opened fire on him and killed him,” said the resident.

Yobe police boss, Lawan Tanko, who confirmed the shooting to AFP, said he was unsure if the victim had died.

“I received the report of the gun attack on the state security service officer in Jeri. He was shot by by two gunmen outside his. It is still not clear if he was just injured or that he was actually killed,” said Tanko.

The attackers detonated some explosives to create panic and pave the way for their escape, he said. The victim’s friends ran away during the attack, the resident said.

The identity of the officer has not been disclosed.

On January 16, an unidentified gunmen shot dead three Chadian nationals in Damaturu, capital of Yobe state, near the Chadian border.

Damaturu has been hit hard by violence blamed on the Islamist group Boko Haram.

http://pmnewsnigeria.com/2012/02/06/police-station-stormed-in-kano-bomb-blasts-in-maiduguri/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PmNewsNigeria+%28PM+News+Nigeria%29

Again? http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/02/blasts-rock-kano-maiduguri/

Not new