Militants, believed to be from Boko Haram, launched an attack on a
village in Nigeria, killing 13 people Sunday, according to witnesses.
The Nigerian air force has repeatedly bombed terrorists' positions and
the army announced it has rescued 178 captives.
Boko Haram — also known as ISWAP — jihadists allegedly stormed a village
in the northeastern Nigerian state of Borno early on Sunday, killing 13
residents and injuring 27 more, including women and children, AFP news
agency reports.
"They also set many houses ablaze after accusing us of telling soldiers their whereabouts," local farmer Moha Saleh told AFP.
Another local, vigilante Goni Musa, who has been fighting against the
Boko Haram jihadists alongside the Nigerian military, also described the
course of the attack.
"They burnt down houses and shops before they left, yelling 'Allahu
Akbar' (God is great). Our terrorized women and children fled into the
bush and returned to Maiduguri this morning," he was quoted as saying by
AFP.
Maiduguri, the capital of the Borno State, the heartland of the ISWAP
insurgency, is situated nearly 20 km (12 miles) from the Malari village,
where the Sunday attack was staged.
"This morning 13 bodies were recovered, some had been shot in the back,
which means they were fleeing when the terrorists killed them,"
Maiduguri added.
Malari Village has been the target of many recent assaults by jihadists.
Two female suicide bombers carried out attacks in the village on July
3rd, with a death toll of 13 people. Earlier in July, ISWAP militants
claimed responsibility for massacring scores of people in attacks on
mosques in three different villages across the state. Bomb and gun
attacks have intensified this summer in Borno, which has been in a state
of emergency since May, 2013.
As a response, the Nigerian Air Force successfully conducted several air
strikes, killing "large numbers" of the Boko Haram fighters, as
reported Sunday by AFP.
"The Nigerian Air Force using its Alpha-Jet provided combat air support
to the ground force to attack the insurgents where they were observed to
be mopping up to carry out a deadly attack on the village.
Consequently, a large number of the insurgents were killed and several
others were injured," Air Commodore Dele Alonge, Director of Public
Relations and Information, Nigerian Air Force, said in a statement,
without giving the incident any timeframe.
Late Sunday, the Nigerian military announce they rescued 178 people in
Borno State rescued from ISWAP captivity, Reuters news agency reported.
On Friday, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, claimed that the use of a
new multinational 8,700-strong force, comprising military units from
neighboring Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Benin, which is about to
enter the battle, will "lead to the speedy defeat and elimination of
Boko Haram." Buhari won the March, 2015 election on a promise to defeat
the jihadists.
Boko Haram began launching attacks across northeastern Nigeria in 2009
and expanded them to Cameroon in 2013, moving on to Chad and Niger in
2015. The extremists want to establish an Islamic state ruled by Sharia
law in the region. In total, more than 15,000 have lost their lives in
Boko-Haram-staged terror attacks.
Boko Haram, which in Hausa means "western education is forbidden," was
initially associated with al-Qaeda, before it pledged allegiance to the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militant group, amid ISIL
advances in Iraq and Syria, in March 2015, and changed its name to
Islamic State's West Africa Province (ISWAP). ISIL, a radical Sunni
group, wants to establish an Islamic caliphate on the territories it has
ceased.
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