Suspected Boko Haram gunmen break locks and set fire to prison allowing inmates, including Muslim extremists, to escape
The bodies and clothes
of alleged Boko Haram followers who were killed during gun battles with
Nigerian police. Photograph: Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP/Getty Images
Nigerian troops have stormed the stronghold of a
self-styled "Taliban" and killed more than 100 Islamist militants in an
attempt to crush an uprising that has rocked the country in recent days.
The bodies of barefoot young men littered the streets of Maiduguri this morning as the army carried out a house-to-house search on the city's outskirts for members of the Islamist sect Boko Haram.
The group's leader, Mohammed Yusuf, escaped along with about 300 followers but his deputy was killed in last night's shelling of the compound, according to army commander Major General Saleh Maina.
Boko Haram wants to overthrow the government and impose Islamic sharia law across Nigeria, which is roughly evenly split between Christians and Muslims.
An Associated Press reporter watched soldiers shoot their way into the mosque in Maiduguri yesterday and then rake those inside with machine gun fire. The reporter later counted about 50 bodies inside the building and a further 50 in the courtyard. The militants, armed with homemade hunting rifles, bows and arrows and scimitars, proved no match for government forces.
Another five corpses lay just inside a large house near the mosque. Maina pointed to the body of a plump, bearded man and said it was Boko Haram's vice-chairman, Bukar Shekau.
"The mission has been accomplished," Maina said.
Islamist militants attacked police stations, churches, prisons and government buildings in a wave of violence that began on Sunday in Borno state. The violence quickly spread to three other states in mainly Muslim northern Nigeria.
It is not known how many people have been killed, wounded and arrested. Relief official Apollus Jediel said yesterday that at least 4,000 people had been displaced by the fighting.
The focus of the violence has been the Boko Haram sect's headquarters in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state. The assault by the security forces came after 1,000 extra soldiers were drafted into the city. Maina said his troops would fire mortar shells later todayto destroy what is left of the sprawling compound, which stretches over 2.5 miles.
The radical sect is known by several different names, including Al-Sunna wal Jamma ("Followers of Mohammed's Teachings") and Boko Haram (western education is sin). Some Nigerian officials have referred to the militants as Taliban, although the group has no known affiliation with Taliban fighters in Afghanistan or Pakistan.
Earlier this week, President Umaru Yar'Adua said the sect was preparing "holy war". Security agents have been watching the sect for months and the order to attack was made when the movement began gathering fighters from nearby states at its Maiduguri headquarters, he said.
In recent months, police have been raiding militant hideouts and finding explosives and arms. The house at the compound in Maiduguri included a laboratory that the military said was used to make chemical and fire bombs.
The Borno governor, Ali Modu Sheriff, told journalists that Yusuf had been seen last night in a village 28 miles north-east of Maiduguri.
Meanwhile, men in Bauchi state and in Maiduguri started trimming and even shaving off their beardstoday, fearful that the facial hair could make them targets for security forces.
In other violence, Nigeria's Vanguard newspaper reported that militants attacked security forces in Yobe state on yesterday, and quoted police as saying that 43 sect members were killed in a shootout near the city of Potiskum.
Nigeria's 140 million people are divided between Christians in the south and northern-based Muslims. Sharia law was implemented in 12 northern states after Nigeria returned to civilian rule in 1999 following years of oppressive military regimes. More than 10,000 Nigerians have died in sectarian violence since then.
The bodies of barefoot young men littered the streets of Maiduguri this morning as the army carried out a house-to-house search on the city's outskirts for members of the Islamist sect Boko Haram.
The group's leader, Mohammed Yusuf, escaped along with about 300 followers but his deputy was killed in last night's shelling of the compound, according to army commander Major General Saleh Maina.
Boko Haram wants to overthrow the government and impose Islamic sharia law across Nigeria, which is roughly evenly split between Christians and Muslims.An Associated Press reporter watched soldiers shoot their way into the mosque in Maiduguri yesterday and then rake those inside with machine gun fire. The reporter later counted about 50 bodies inside the building and a further 50 in the courtyard. The militants, armed with homemade hunting rifles, bows and arrows and scimitars, proved no match for government forces.
Another five corpses lay just inside a large house near the mosque. Maina pointed to the body of a plump, bearded man and said it was Boko Haram's vice-chairman, Bukar Shekau.
"The mission has been accomplished," Maina said.
Islamist militants attacked police stations, churches, prisons and government buildings in a wave of violence that began on Sunday in Borno state. The violence quickly spread to three other states in mainly Muslim northern Nigeria.
It is not known how many people have been killed, wounded and arrested. Relief official Apollus Jediel said yesterday that at least 4,000 people had been displaced by the fighting.
The focus of the violence has been the Boko Haram sect's headquarters in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state. The assault by the security forces came after 1,000 extra soldiers were drafted into the city. Maina said his troops would fire mortar shells later todayto destroy what is left of the sprawling compound, which stretches over 2.5 miles.
The radical sect is known by several different names, including Al-Sunna wal Jamma ("Followers of Mohammed's Teachings") and Boko Haram (western education is sin). Some Nigerian officials have referred to the militants as Taliban, although the group has no known affiliation with Taliban fighters in Afghanistan or Pakistan.
Earlier this week, President Umaru Yar'Adua said the sect was preparing "holy war". Security agents have been watching the sect for months and the order to attack was made when the movement began gathering fighters from nearby states at its Maiduguri headquarters, he said.
In recent months, police have been raiding militant hideouts and finding explosives and arms. The house at the compound in Maiduguri included a laboratory that the military said was used to make chemical and fire bombs.
The Borno governor, Ali Modu Sheriff, told journalists that Yusuf had been seen last night in a village 28 miles north-east of Maiduguri.
Meanwhile, men in Bauchi state and in Maiduguri started trimming and even shaving off their beardstoday, fearful that the facial hair could make them targets for security forces.
In other violence, Nigeria's Vanguard newspaper reported that militants attacked security forces in Yobe state on yesterday, and quoted police as saying that 43 sect members were killed in a shootout near the city of Potiskum.
Nigeria's 140 million people are divided between Christians in the south and northern-based Muslims. Sharia law was implemented in 12 northern states after Nigeria returned to civilian rule in 1999 following years of oppressive military regimes. More than 10,000 Nigerians have died in sectarian violence since then.
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