Delta militants' car bomb kills two at military base in oil city

A car bomb detonated inside a military barracks in the Nigerian oil centre of Port Harcourt, killed two people and injured several others, military authorities said on Thursday. The militant Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has claimed responsibility for the car bomb, marking a new dimension in an already violent campaign that has slashed Nigerian oil exports and pushed up global prices. Brig-Gen Samuel Salihu, the commander of the military barracks in the city’s Bori district, said the heavy explosion which rocked the compound just before 20 00 hrs local time (19 GMT) on Wednesday was caused by a car bomb. “Two people were killed and six were critically injured and taken to the military hospital for treatment,” Salihu said. Neither of the dead is a soldier, Salihu said. But he would not say conclusively if they were civilians, saying that the authorities were still working to determine their exact identities. MEND said in a statement emailed to reporters it had set off the car bomb by remote control. “This act was symbolic rather than strategic and serves as a further warning to the Nigerian military, oil companies and those who are attempting to sell the birthright of the Niger Delta peoples for a bowl of porridge,” the group said in the statement. “In the coming weeks, we will carry out similar attacks against relevant oil industry targets and individuals,” it added. The group claims to be fighting for the interests of the mainly ethnic Ijaw inhabitants of the Niger Delta. The region remains desperately poor despite accounting for most of the oil that is the lifeblood of the Nigerian economy. On Wednesday the group denounced plans announced by President Olusegun Obasanjo to redress grievances in the impoverished region. It vowed instead to carry out more attacks with the aim of winning local control of oil wealth. Attacks and hostage-taking against oil operations by the group have cut Nigeria's oil exports of 2.5 million barrels a day by more than 20 percent since January . Earlier this month, the same group released 13 foreign oil workers after a five-week hostage ordeal. Obasanjo’s plan, unfolded to moderate Niger Delta leaders in the Nigerian capital Abuja on Tuesday, is to create 20,000 jobs in the region and invest in roads, education and health for its people. Radical Niger Delta leaders boycotted the meeting, with MEND dismissing Obasanjo's offer as "menial jobs". MEND also restated its demands for the release of militia leader Moujahid Dokubo-Asari held on treason charges and former state governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha who is facing corruption charges. It also wants Royal Dutch Shell, the largest oil operator in Nigeria, to pay US $1.8 billion as damages for pollution to ethnic Ijaw communities in oil-rich Bayelsa state as ordered by a Nigerian court.