The leader of nigeria's boko haram islamist militants has denied killing civilians in last week's kano bombings, in which 185 people died. In a message posted on youtube, abubakar shekau blamed the deaths of "innocent civilians" on nigeria's security forces.
In his 40-minute audio message, mr shekau also threatened to carry out a bombing campaign against nigeria's secondary schools and universities - unless security forces stopped what he claimed was a series of recent attacks on islamic schools or madrassas in maiduguri. Mr shekau reiterated claims that the nigerian government would not be able to stop boko haram - and demanded the release from prison of all its members.