Dozens of 'soldiers' killed in Islamist strike in northern Nigeria

Morgues collect 35 bodies in military uniform after
Boko Haram attacks northern Nigeria city

Goodluck Jonathan authorised a sweeping military
offensive to try to stamp out the Islamists by targeting
their training camps Photo: Reuters
Mike
Pflanz
By Mike Pflanz, Nairobi
4:22PM GMT 28 Oct 2013
Dozens of bodies in military uniforms have brought to a
morgue in northern Nigeria after Islamist fighters staged a
surprise attack on a provincial capital, hospital sources
said.
Nigerian army sources confirmed that some of the
casualties were soldiers but added that Boko Haram
gunmen often wore military fatigues as disguise during
their missions.
The deaths followed hours of fighting in Damaturu, the
capital of Yobe state in Nigeria’s far northeast, late on
Thursday and into the early hours of Friday.
Gunmen stormed a military checkpoint and opened fire,
launching a seven-hour gunbattle that left an unknown
number of people dead and the town under a 24-hour
curfew, which has since been reduced to 4pm to 7am.
“We have received lots of bodies in the last three days
from the attacks. I counted 35 bodies in military uniform,”
a senior official at the Damaturu Specialist Hospital told
the French news agency, AFP.

An army officer based in the central city of Jos said 20
soldiers had been admitted at a hospital there, suffering
from, “gunshot wounds sustained in the battle against
Boko Haram in Damaturu”.
Boko Haram is an al-Qaeda affiliate that has been fighting
for northern Nigeria, which is majority Muslim, to be ruled
according to strict interpretations of Islamic law.
Since it widened its attacks in 2009, it has killed thousands
of people and put large areas of the north of Africa’s most
populous country out of bounds for international visitors.
Its targets have included schools, churches and military
and police facilities.
Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria’s president, authorised a
sweeping military offensive to try to stamp out the
Islamists by targeting their training camps. The day before
the Damaturu raid, the army killed 95 alleged rebels in
Borno state.
But the success of the operation remains unclear and the
attack in Damaturu, apparently carried out by a significant
number of insurgents in a heavily fortified city, has cast
further doubt the effectiveness of the military offensive.
There are however signs that Boko Haram has been
pushed back into the northeast, its historic stronghold,
after carrying out attacks across the wider north through
much of 2011 and 2012.