US embassy warns radical Muslims could bomb hotels

A RADICAL Muslim sect responsible for attacks that left more than 100 people dead in north-east Nigeria at the weekend could bomb three luxury hotels frequented by foreigners in oil-rich nation’s capital, the US Embassy warned yesterday.

The unusually specific warning from US diplomats identified possible targets of the sect known locally as Boko Haram as the Hilton, Nicon Luxury and Sheraton hotels. Those hotels draw diplomats, politicians and Nigeria’s business elite daily in the country’s central capital of Abuja.

The embassy said the attack may come as Nigeria celebrates the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha and that its diplomats and staff had been instructed to avoid those hotels.