Deaths as blast targets Nigerian church

Violence At least 14 people died in the blastA suicide car bomber attacked a Catholic church in Nigeria on Sunday, killing at least 14 people in the blast and retaliatory violence that followed, officials said.The bomb detonated as worshippers attended the final Mass of the day at St. Finbars Catholic Church in Jos, a city where thousands have died in the last decade in religious and ethnic violence.Security at the gate of the churchs compound stopped the suspicious car and the bomber detonated his explosives during an altercation that followed, Plateau state spokesman Pam Ayuba said.At least four people are said to have been killed by the explosion. Several soldiers were also wounded in the blast.The bombing sparked retaliatory violence in Jos later on Sunday, with angry youths burning down homes and soldiers guarding the city opening fire in neighborhoods, witnesses said. That violence claimed at least ten lives.No group immediately claimed responsibility though the city has been targeted in the past by a radical Islamist sect known as Boko Haram. The sect claimed a series of bombings in Jos on Christmas Eve in 2010 that killed as many as 80 people.The sect also claimed a similar church bombing on February 26 on the main headquarters of the Church of Christ, which killed three people and wounded 38 others.Al Jazeeras Yvonne Ndege reporting from Lagos said that the bombings have the hallmark of the radical Islamist group Boko Haram, though no one has claimed responsibility for the attack.