Gunmen armed
with explosives attacked a police station, a primary school and two
cellphone towers in a town in Nigeria's restive northeast before dawn on
Sunday, setting them ablaze, the military and residents said.
"We heard that
there were some attacks in Fika by suspected Boko Haram terrorists. They
attacked two telecommunication masts, a police station and a primary
school," Lazarus Eli, military spokesman in Yobe State, told AFP.
A resident said
he had seen the bodies of two policemen being brought out of the razed
police station, but Eli said he could not immediately confirm any
casualties.
Eli said troops
had deployed to the town to contain the violence. Fika lies some 170
kilometres (110 miles) from Damaturu, the capital of Yobe State and a
hotbed of Islamist extremist group Boko Haram.
Residents said the gunmen attacked their targets with explosives at around 4:30 am.
"They threw
explosives and fired gunshots at their targets, setting them ablaze, and
fled after the attack," Tanimu Mani told AFP.
"Soldiers who
arrived in the town went inside the burnt police station and brought out
the bodies of two policemen killed in the attack," he said.
Another resident, student Hassan Gaji, said he had heard blasts and gunshots during early morning prayers.
"They were shooting seriously for about one hour," he said, adding that the town had been taken over by police and soldiers.
He said the
attackers had entered Fika on the road leading from Potiskum to the
north "and went straight to the police station, bombed it and proceeded
to the primary school in the town".
Some towns in
Yobe state, including Damaturu, Potiskum and Fika been hard hit by
deadly attacks by Boko Haram in recent months, leaving hundreds of
people dead and prompting a heavy army deployment.
Violence linked
to the Boko Haram insurgency is believed to have left more than 2,800
people dead since 2009, including killings by the security forces.
Boko Haram has
claimed to be seeking an Islamic state in Nigeria, Africa's most
populous nation and largest oil producer, although its demands have
repeatedly shifted.
The sect has
targeted government and security figures, as well as Christians in
churches and even mosques, prominent Muslim clerics and scholars in the
country, which is divided between a mainly Muslim north and
predominantly Christian south.
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