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New clashes reported in Nigeria

KANO, Nigeria -- Fresh clashes have been reported in Nigeria after violence in the city of Kano claimed at least 18 lives in two days.

Reuters reports that fighting broke out in the working class district of Tudun Wada on Monday for the first time since Friday's anti-U.S. protests.

Authorities in the city confirmed that at least 18 people had died after two days of clashes between police and anti-U.S. protesters. But despite official accounts of the number of dead, witnesses told CNN they had seen hundreds of bodies in the streets and elsewhere.

By Sunday night, city streets were quiet, but gunfire could be heard in the suburbs, according to CNN's Lagos Bureau Chief Jeff Koinange.

The protests began peacefully on Friday as an angry reaction to the U.S.-led airstrikes in Afghanistan, but turned violent on Saturday.

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Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo was reported by Reuters on Monday to have said he was unconcerned by the clashes.

"I don't worry," Obasanjo told Reuters in Paris, where he was attending a conference of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

Asked whether additional security measures were needed, he said: "Not really. We knew there would be people who would want to express (themselves)."

Some of the fighting was attributed to traditional rivalries between Christians and Muslims. After the violence began, many non-Muslims fled to police stations and military barracks for safety.

Additional government troops entered Kano on Sunday to help police keep the peace, after many residents ignored an overnight curfew.

Nigeria's population of about 120 million is split almost evenly between Muslims and Christians.

"We have instructions to shoot any rioters on sight," a police officer at Kano central police station told Reuters.

Nigeria has faced an increase in ethnic or religious bloodshed since army rule ended in 1999.

There was violence early last year following the introduction of strict Islamic sharia law in parts of predominantly Muslim northern Nigeria.

Last month, hundreds of people were reported dead in fighting in the central city of Jos.