128 Dead In Yobe Attack

A 5-hour battle between Islamic extremists and army troops in the capital of Yobe state killed at least 127 people, all but two combatants, according to reports from army and police officers that raise doubts about military claims that they have the upper hand in Nigeria’s fight to halt an Islamic uprising in the northeast.

The Washington Post reports that the stench of rotting corpses from the morgue hung over Damaturu Specialist Hospital on Tuesday, where a reporter counted 31 bodies identified as those of extremists.

Details still are trickling in about the attack, which militants began at dusk Thursday on an army barracks 20 kilometers (12 miles) outside Damaturu, the capital, where they overpowered the soldiers, seized an armored car, looted the armory and set the barracks ablaze with improvised explosive devices.

The reports were given to Yobe state Gov. Ibrahim Gaidam by military officers as he toured the destroyed sites with a heavily armed escort on Monday. Journalists accompanying the tour heard the reports.

The attackers then moved down the main road into the city where they rammed the armored car through the gates to the headquarters of the Police Anti-Terrorist Squad. There, they burned down three buildings.

While some of the extremists exchanged fire with the police, the armored car and others in all-terrain pickup trucks and on foot went on to shoot up and set fire to the police Criminal Investigation Department offices and four other police offices scattered across the city until they arrived at the Mobile Police Base, where the armored car caught fire and was abandoned.


Source: Leadership