It is a northerrn state in Nigeria, now witnessing violent attacks by Islam fundamentalists.

More than 150 people were killed in the Friday evening carnage in the northern city of Kano. The group Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the attacks, whose targets included the secret service headquarters, an immigration office and a passport office.

It was the group's most deadly strike, far exceeding previous death tolls.

Boko Haram, which wants to impose sharia, or Islamic law, on Nigeria's 160 million people, killed more than 500 people in almost daily attacks last year. Before Friday's violence, it had killed more than 70 people this month.

U.S. officials have expressed fear that the group, whose name means "Western education is sacrilege," may be getting support and training from Al Qaeda affiliates on the continent, given the increasing sophistication of its attacks and growing use of suicide bombers.

Nigeria is divided between the mainly Muslim north and the oil-rich, mainly Christian south. It has been plagued by terrorist attacks in the north as well as by sec ...more