We Will Wipe Out Shiite Muslims -- Boko Haram

Boko Haram on Saturday claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing on
a Shiite Muslim procession near the northern Nigerian city of Kano
that killed 22 people.

The hardline Islamist group said in a statement in Arabic on social
media its bomber "detonated his explosives which led to the death" of
the victims on Friday.

"And by the permission of Allah these attacks of ours against Shi'a
polytheists will continue ‎until we cleanse the earth of their filth,"
it warned.

At least 21 people were initially reported killed but the toll rose
after one more person was confirmed dead.

"For now, we have 22 deaths following the death of one more person
yesterday. Thirty-eight people have also been injured, two of whom
have been discharged from the hospital," one of the organisers of the
march Ali Kakaki told AFP Saturday.

He said that, despite the attack on Friday, the Islamic Movement of
Nigeria members had continued their march from Kano to Zaria in
neighbouring Kaduna state, where their leader Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky
is based.

The march is to mark Ashura, which commemorates the death of Hussein,
the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed.

"Following the attack, many more of our members have joined the
procession," Kakaki said, adding that they aimed to arrive at their
destination next week.

Friday's attack took place in the village of Dakasoye, some 20
kilometres (13 miles) south of the city of Kano.

One of the procession's organisers said a bomber clad in black ran
into the crowd and detonated his explosives.

Boko Haram, the radical Sunni jihadists who want to create a hardline
Islamic state in northeast Nigeria, has previously been blamed for
attacks on Shia Muslims in the region.

Boko Haram, whose six-year insurgency has left at least 17,000 people
dead and made more than 2.6 million homeless, condemns Shias as
heretics who should be killed.

The group has increasingly used suicide bombers against "soft"
civilian targets since the start of a military offensive earlier this
year that pushed them out of territory they controlled.

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari has given his military commanders
until next month to end the conflict but there are fears that suicide
and bomb attacks may persist.

-PMNews