Nigerian troops attack Islamist mosque, kill 100

FE Team | Published: July 31, 2009 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

A Nigerian police officer looks at the body of an alleged self-styled Nigerian Taliban in the northern city of Maiduguri. — AFP

MAIDUGURI, July 30 (AP): Troops shelled the compound of an Islamist sect blamed for days of violence in northern Nigeria then attacked its mosque, killing at least 100 militants in a fierce battle.
Sect leader Mohammed Yusuf escaped along with about 300 followers but his deputy was killed in Wednesday night's bombardment, according to Army commander Maj Gen Saleh Maina.
The army was conducting a house-to-house manhunt Thursday on the outskirts of Maiduguri for Yusuf and his followers.
A reporter watched soldiers shoot their way into the mosque in Maiduguri Wednesday and then rake those holed up inside with gunfire. The reporter later counted about 50 bodies inside the building and another 50 in the courtyard outside. The militants were armed with homemade hunting rifles, bows and arrows and scimitars.
Another five corpses were just inside a large house near the mosque. Maina pointed to the body of a plump, bearded man and said it the Boko Haram sect's vice chairman, Bukar Shekau.
"The mission has been accomplished," said Maina, the army commander.
Militants seeking to impose Islamic Sharia law throughout this multi-religious country attacked police stations, churches, prisons and government buildings in a wave of violence that began Sunday in Borno state and quickly spread to three other states in mainly Muslim northern Nigeria.
It is not known how many scores of people have been killed, wounded and arrested. Relief official Apollus Jediel said about 1,000 people had abandoned their homes Wednesday due to the violence, joining 3,000 displaced earlier this week in the four states.