Obama : Nigeria U.N. attack ‘cowardly’

U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday evening strongly condemned the “horrific and cowardly” attack on the U.N. headquarters in Nigeria and offered America’s condolences to the victims and their families. “The United Nations has been working in partnership with the people of Nigeria for more than five decades,” said Obama, who is on vacation in Massachusetts. He added, “An attack on Nigerian and international public servants demonstrates the bankruptcy of the ideology that led to this heinous action.” Obama described the attack on the U.N. headquarters building as horrific and coward attack on the United Nations headquarters building in Abuja, Nigeria “The people who serve the United Nations do so with a simple purpose: to try to improve the lives of their neighbors and promote the values on which the U.N. was founded,dignity, freedom, security, and peace,” Obama said. “The United States strongly supports the work of the United Nations and its lasting bond with the people of Nigeria, a bond that will only emerge stronger in the wake of this murderous act,” Obama concluded. A suicide bomb blast shook the U.N. compound in the Nigerian capital Abuja on Friday, killing at least 18 people, leaving others trapped, and blowing out large areas of the building, officials said. Witnesses said the bomb went off after a suspect forced his way through security and rammed the car into the building. Parts of the first two floors were blown out and rescue workers scrambled to pull out those left inside.