News
Boko Haram on Rampage , Kills 67 in Nigeria Northeast
Published By
PM NEWS Live
Date
5th November, 2011
About 67 seven lives have been recorded as lost so far to a series of coordinated attacks in Yobe and Borno States in Nigeria Northeast region on Friday, news agencies are reporting quoting security sources and relief agencies.
There are however indications that the casualties may be higher even as the militant Boko Haram Islamic fundamentalist sect has claimed responsibility for a series of the attacks.
The fundamentalist sect was obviously more successful in Yobe where it launched a series of attacks Damaturu, the State capital and the nearby town of Potiskum.
Reports indicated that police headquarters, Joint Task Force Office, churches and mosques were attacked with explosives in Damaturu, in addition to exchange of gunfire between the Security operatives and the unknown gunmen in the city.
“The streets are deserted. I have lost count of dead bodies, but … I saw at least 80 dead bodies in the mortuary. There is no high presence of security on the streets and two banks were bombed,” a witness to the Damaturu violence, Umar Gambo, told a news agency.
AP reported a Red Cross official as saying gunmen then went through Damature, blowing up a First Bank PLC branch and attacking at least three police stations and some churches, leaving them in rubble while gunfire continued through the night as gunmen raided the village of Potiskum.
A suicide bomber attacked the Yobe State Police headquarters.   Suleimon Lawal, Yobe State Commissioner of Police confirmed that a suicide attack was launched against a police station in Damaturu: “It was a suicide bomb attack at one of our buildings. The attacker came in a Honda CRV and rammed into the building and explosives exploded,” police commissioner Suleimon Lawal told AFP on the phone.
The fundamentalist group had hours earlier carried out similar attacks in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state where at least seven people were reported killed as the terror group launched a suicide attack against Joint Task Force Headquarters and detonated IEDs outside the State Security Services and an Islamic educational institution.
PM NEWS gathered that the cities have been deserted as a result of the attacks.
Abu Qaqa, a Boko Haram spokesman confirmed that the sect was responsible for the attacks in an interview with The Daily Trust. “We will continue attacking federal government formations until security forces stop their excesses on our members and vulnerable civilians,” he was quoted as saying.
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