Militants target churches in Nigeria

Suspected Islamic extremists detonated a bomb outside a church building Nigeria on Sunday, two months after Boko Haram Islamists killed 44 Christians and blinded seven in a church bombing in nearby Madalla.

Compass Direct News says Sunday's blast in Suleja, in front of Christ Embassy church during morning worship, injured five people, one seriously, according to sources.

Compass reports the bomb, planted in a parked car, was left by suspected members of Boko Haram, which seeks to impose sharia (Islamic law) throughout Nigeria, and authorities arrested some members of the sect the same day.

Triumphant Ministries International Church is also near the site of the explosion.

Peter Osema, a search-and-rescue worker with Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency, told the news agency that the bomb was likely meant to affect both churches, and indeed Compass learned that at least one of those injured belongs to the Triumph Ministries church.

Compass also reported that at St. Theresa's Catholic Church in Madalla, where the casualty figure has varied the past few months as victims were sought and identified at various hospitals, the Rev Isaac Achi said Monday that 44 church members were killed in the Christmas Day blast.

"Of the 127 victims, we lost 44, and of the injured seven lost their sight," Achi said.