Suicide car bombs hit Nigerian newspaper offices

By Camillus Eboh and Garba Mohammed

ABUJA/KADUNA (Reuters) - Suicide car bombers targeted the offices of Nigerian newspaper This Day in the capital Abuja and northern city of Kaduna on Thursday, killing at least four people in apparently coordinated strikes.

This Day is based in southern Nigeria and is broadly supportive of President Goodluck Jonathan's government - the main target for Islamist insurgent group Boko Haram, which has killed hundreds of people this year in shootings and bombings.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks.

At around 11 a.m. (1000 GMT) one bomber drove a jeep into the daily's office in Abuja, killing himself and two others, witnesses and the state security service (SSS) said.

At the same time, 140 km (90 miles) north in Kaduna, a car was stopped from getting into This Day's offices and one of the attackers jumped out.

"He was immediately challenged by two gallant Nigerians, following which he threw the bomb at them and it detonated, killing them instantly," the SSS said in a statement.

It identified the bomber as Umaru Mustapha, from Maiduguri in Borno state, the home of Boko Haram in the remote northeast of Africa's most populous nation.

Later in the day, a roadside bomb exploded in a suburb of Kaduna, wounding 4 people but causing no deaths, Kaduna state police spokesman Aminu Lawal said.