The radical Islamist group Boko Haram is claiming responsibility for recent attacks against Christian villages in Nigeria.
Last Saturday, hundreds of assailants armed with guns and machetes stormed a dozen Christian villages in the city of Jos, killing 58 people.
"We thank God for our success in the attack on Christians at Barikin Ladi and Riyom, whereby security agents, Christians, and two state and national assembly members were killed," the sect said in a letter signed by Boko Haram leader Abul Qaqa on Tuesday.
Watch an updated report on this week's Christian World News, July 13. For more on the calls for prayer and intervention for Nigerian Christians, click here.
"We are also informing Christians all over the country to embrace Islam or they will be attacked," they warned. "If they fail to do so, there is nobody to blame but themselves."
At a June Congressional hearing, the president of the Christian Association of Nigeria told lawmakers the United States should officially declare Boko Haram a terrorist organization.
"By refusing to designate Boko Haram as a foreign terrorist organization, the United States is sending a very clear message not just to the federal government of Nigeria, but to the world that the murder of innocent Christians and Muslims who reject Islamism - and I make a clear distinction here between Islamism and Islam - are accepted losses," CAN President Ayo Oritsejafor said.
To date, the U.S.State Department has only designated three Boko Haram leaders as terrorists.