Fires smoldered in burned cars and the ruins of buildings in the northern Nigerian city of Kano a day after Muslim-Christian clashes left more than a dozen people dead and places of worship destroyed.
Inter-religious violence is tragically familiar in this volatile West African nation -- but this time, Saturday's bloodletting may have been fueled by bombings and terrorist attacks half a world away.
The rampage in northern Nigeria's largest city came a day after a clash between police and an armed mob following a protest by Muslim fundamentalists against the US-led airstrikes on Afghanistan. The strikes began Oct. 7 in retaliation for the airliner attacks in the US.
Police said 13 people were confirmed killed in Saturday's violence, including five rioters shot by police. There were unconfirmed reports of hundreds dead but by Sunday no bodies were visible on the streets. Hospitals refused admission to journalists and gave no figures on dead and injured.
Kano State government officials, anxious to play down the violence and prevent it from escalating, dismissed media reports of hundreds killed.
"To say hundreds is an exaggeration," said Kano state government spokesman Ibrahim Gwagwarwa.
Nigerian officials often refuse to discuss the ethnic or religious divisions contributing to the frequent clashes in Nigeria, fearing that doing so could escalate the violence.
But witnesses told of groups of Christian and Muslim rioters yelling religious slogans as they attacked and chased bystanders believed to be of another faith. Witnesses said some Muslim rioters carried posters of Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
On Sunday, Bin Laden posters could still be seen pinned up on walls and buildings around the city. Some taxis also bore stickers of Bin Laden's famous face.
Most residents -- including many who said they disagreed with the US-led strikes -- expressed dismay at the fighting, saying they feared relations between Christian and Muslims in the city had been seriously damaged.
"I don't see George Bush, I don't see bin Laden. I want to see peace," said Seydou Muhammad, a Muslim market trader in his 50s.
Government officials and some residents blamed the fighting on unidentified thugs, whom they said began looting stores and homes immediately after Friday's anti-US protests. Police made more than 100 arrests.
"It is unemployed youths, both Muslim and Christian, who are causing all the trouble," said Abdul Kadir, a university student who said he knew both Christians and Muslims who had lost property or loved ones as a result of the fighting.
Hundreds of soldiers were restoring an uneasy calm to Kano, some 800km north of the commercial capital of Lagos.
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