The nurses in the Umaru Shehu hospital said 30 of the dead were in civilian clothes, while another five wore military uniforms. Militants of the Boko Haram Islamist sect, headquartered in Maiduguri, sometimes wear civilian clothes.
"They brought in so many dead bodies. They were more than 30 civilians, in civilian dress. We counted five dead soldiers as well," a nurse, who declined to be named, said. Most had died of gunshot wounds, she added.
Boko Haram is waging an insurgency against President Goodluck Jonathan's government with the avowed aim of reviving an ancient Islamic kingdom in majority Muslim northern Nigeria.
Styled on the Afghan Taliban, the sect's purported leader Abubakar Shekau has said he wants to impose sharia, Islamic law, on the country of 160 million people, around half of whom are Christians and the other half Muslim. His movement has become the number one security threat to Africa's top energy producer.
Borno state security spokesman Sagir Musa said he could not confirm or deny the casualty toll, but he admitted troops had opened fire after a bomb they suspected to be remotely detonated wounded two of them in a patrol.
He said the military would give a statement on Wednesday morning.
Nigerian forces launched a fresh operation against Boko Haram over the weekend, killing 30 of its members, including a senior commander, and arrested 10 others in a raid on the northeastern city of Damaturu, they said on Monday.
A crackdown on the group this year has had mixed results, weakening it but also pushing it into new areas south of its heartland. Northerners complain that heavy-handed police and military tactics, including indiscriminate killings and arrests, have made new recruits for the sect.
GUN BATTLES
Lieutenant Eli Lazarus, a spokesman for joint military and police forces in northeastern Yobe state, said in a statement that they had conducted cordon and search operations at a suspected Boko Haram hideout in Damaturu on Sunday and "engaged in a gun battle with the suspected terrorists".
"About 30 suspected Boko Haram terrorists were killed in the battle which lasted several hours ... The notorious one-eyed Bakaka, the field commander of Boko Haram in Damaturu and a close associate of Abubakar Shekau, was killed," he said.
Ten others were arrested and "are presently assisting investigators to track other senior members of the terrorist group", he added. Three homemade bombs, six assault rifles, 90 rounds of ammunition and several knives were seized, he said.
There was no immediate comment from Boko Haram.
Source: Reuters
43 comments:
I pity for North........................ DNA
na wa ooo...when will ds Pple stop noww........It is well wt NIGERIA
Cowards! Probably it is bystanders that make up that number. Please get these guys busy by tasking them to go help plant trees, help cover erosions in Anambra state, and help build drainage system. This is how other countries do.
Ehmmm!!!! Another masssacre - bakc to back with teh Aluu killings. This time the killers are in uniform, the dead - northerners amongst whom the Boko Haram members live. Do we condone because it happened in Boko territory/North? Or wait, we dont have the before pictures of the victims, so its hard to be outraged because we have a hard time imagining whether they would look like the rest of us when they grow up. Just checking. Waiting to hear from the outraged majority. Dem say die na die. I gree - Die na die. Die na die. Poor man pikin, big man first son, pharoah first son, tailor first son, Madam Bank last pikin, John Doe daughter. All die na die.
Let us pray 4 d peace of our country, all ds killing and blood shed s becoming very alarming nd scary.
It is well may God heal our land n peace. Be restored
atyms i still cant believe dat all dis tins are happenin rite here in nigeria, sounds like d stories we used 2 hear abt afghanistan or d north african countries.....God help naija
they wont rest until they have wiped out everybody abi?
Army people na them i trust.they no dey chere ka abi a.dis boko haram nevr see nke toro biati
Na bible prophecy dey come 2ru nw. D only way out is 2 draw close 2 God dts all
The Boko is retaliating. God bless Nigeria.
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Look at how twisted this article is. BBC who broke the story said the soldiers opened fire on civilians after one of their vehicles was hit by a bomb and 7 officers killed.
They even have statements of witnesses detailing their ordeal in the hands of the soldiers. You here are trying to turn the thing around and paint it as a military offensive on Boko Haram. you even go as far as saying Boko Haram sometimes wear civilian clothes. Do they have a uniform before? Talk of suggestive reporting. Trying to control your readers opinion with word pictures.
let me tell you what happen. Soldiers went on rampage, shooting civilians at random and burning houses.
i live in d north n a glad abt ds i hope dese boko haram just fade away as quickly as dey came
Were are we heading
...AND GLO ARE RECRUITING DESPERATE JOB SEEKERS AND POSTING THEM TO BAUCHI AND JOS ONLY. N50K SALARY WITH NO SECURITY AND NOTHING ELSE...
d pity shldnt be for north only.nigeria as a whole shld be in our prayers.
God help this nation.
Truly we are living in the last days no Doubt.
Nigeria military are doing a great job,more grease to your elbow
Linda I hope u are also crying "justice for the innocent ones" that lost their lives in this gun battle?or is ur cry limited only to those "fine" boys? Bloody hypocrites,Nigerians. Half baked sympathies and crocodile tears.
Take charge of ur country and cry out for "all innocent victims"
Are u serious?? No immediate comment from Boko haram!! So d govt know dis ppl?? Smh 4 dis islamic sect nd Nija!! Anyway nyc work jtf!!! Baby Whiz says so!!
its the end time.no two ways abt it.we should all go closer to God
Allah kare. Amin. RIP to the dead
This is d kind of story i want 2 hear,dat d so called boko haram are nt invincible and can be stoped. Nice one JTF........................K.K Belleti
God have mercy on the poor soul
So BH detonates a bomb and the army responds by opening fire on innocent civilians??? Dear God!
God have mercy on the poor soul
Rita says
Its a if im reading about another country. What a frightening prospect for our children. Its like there is a sword of damacles hovering and waiting to wipe Nigeria out. Jesus please come now
D ones they are holding hostage must be well monitored cos thay can kill dia selves to avoid being questioned.May God save Nigeria.
i cry for my people shaa .... All is well ...
stop decieving NIgerians, am sure it was not members of boko pple dat were killed, they just want to create an impression.
Am tired of the killings in this country, may God save us.
All these will backfire on IBB, ATIKU,BUHARI and other boko haram sponsor. The same idiot will extinct and destroy them and their generations. Shame on the big fools.
Its a pity. No doubt that some innocent civilians were killed. What if you were a soldier in that van? You may be tempted to open fire as it is difficult to tell who is BH and who is not.People always talk about innocent civilians that will never disclose the operation oh BH to security operatives.
For thou shall confess wit d mouth and belive in d heart that d LORD JESUS that d LORD GOD raised him from d dead thou shall b saved. Signs of END TIME. B ware for what shall it profit a man and loose his own .....................
God help Nigeria!!who knws if those ones are truly boko haram?
dis is no dought bible prophecy fullfiling, dat we r living in d last days,so we need to put d doing of God's will first in our lives, so dat we will be preserve alive when God will bring an end 2 dis system of thing.
dis is no dought bible prophecy fullfiling, dat we r living in d last days,so we need to put d doing of God's will first in our lives, so dat we will be preserve alive when God will bring an end 2 dis system of thing.
God help us in this country,put an end to all these killing,restore our peace in Nigeria o God of our creation. Meanwhile Nigeria corpers are starving seriously cos we have not receive September allowance up till this present moment pls help us find solution to this fellow Nigeria before they turn us to street beggars
R u minding her?
Wit al dese stuffs happening there,d shudn't dare post any southerner to go serve there al in d name of youth service,d shud b postin their graduates within themselves while we switch our grads with d easteners.abi no b so?cos if d post me there,me I no dey go Lai lai.
more of dat jor..kilo kon me as..dem just start abi dem dey tink say na chrstains way go just chill and wait for the wack nigerain justice to take turf..BOMb dem for me jor...
So what happened to these victims madame linda? Don't they deserve justice too? Or justice is only for Aluu. If ure fighting for one, fight for all. You better fight and advocate for security in the country. Cos if the police can curtail arm robbery, rape and all, angry people won't be seen taking justice into their hands.
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