Soldiers Patrol Riot-Racked Kano

Fires smoldered in burned cars and ruined buildings in the northern city of Kano on Sunday, a day after Muslim-Christian clashes left at least 13 people dead and religious tensions high.

The fighting Saturday was apparently ignited by clashes between police and an armed mob Friday after a protest by Muslims against the U.S.-led airstrikes on Afghanistan.

Police said they had confirmed 13 deaths in Saturday’s violence, including five rioters shot by police. There were unconfirmed reports of hundreds dead, but by Sunday no bodies were on the streets. Hospitals refused to admit journalists and gave no casualty figures.

“To say hundreds is an exaggeration,” said government spokesman Ibrahim Gwagwarwa.

Meanwhile, hundreds of soldiers patrolled Kano, about 500 miles northeast of the commercial capital, Lagos, restoring an uneasy calm Sunday. Burning tires and garbage littered a four-lane road in Kano, and firefighters battled blazes in several buildings.

While some Muslims vowed more protests against the U.S.-led airstrikes, many other residents expressed dismay at the fighting, saying they feared relations between Christians and Muslims in the city had been seriously damaged.

“I just pray for the fighting to stop,” said Tony Sojay, an employee at St. George’s Anglican Church who saw a mob stab a man to death outside the church.

Government officials and some residents blamed the fighting on thugs, not religious tensions. They said people began looting stores and homes immediately after Friday’s anti-U.S. 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.

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.

Some Muslim rioters carried posters of Osama bin Laden, whom the U.S. calls the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Government officials often deny the religious basis of fighting to avoid fueling further violence in Nigeria, which is divided between a largely Muslim north and Christian south.