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Casualties Feared after Boko Haram Attack Military Base
 ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...attack on a military base in remote northeast Nigeria ... a particularly crimson stretch of Islam's bloody border... , security sources said on Monday. Islamist faceless myrmidons overran the base in Jilli village, in the Geidam area of Yobe state, on Saturday evening, a day after a separate attack on troops in neighbouring Borno state. There has been no official comment about Saturday's attack but one military source told AFP: "So far we have lost 31 soldiers, including three officers. "Two vigilantes were also killed in the attack," he said, adding that 24 soldiers were maimed and being treated in hospital. A civilian militia source in the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, added: "I don't have an exact toll of those killed. "But yesterday the dead casualties were brought in three trucks to Maimalari military barracks here in Maiduguri. This means the casualty toll is high." The militia member said Boko Haram fighters in military uniform and driving vehicles in army colours were allowed into the base. "The soldiers mistook them for their colleagues from Gubio and opened the gates to the base. This was what led to all this loss," he added. More than 700 soldiers were at the base at the time and hundreds of them were unaccounted for as of Sunday. The military source, who asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorised to talk to the media, said "a number of the missing soldiers have showed up", without specifying a figure. The attack is suspected to have been carried out by fighters loyal to factional leader Abu Mus'ab al-Barnawi, who is backed by the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... group. Meanwhile a search and rescue operation was understood to be ongoing in the Bama area of Borno state for 18 soldiers and five officers missing since Friday's attack near Bama. Local security operatives said seasonal rains were hampering the search. Army front man Brigadier General Texas Chukwu said the Boko Haram attack near Bama was "successfully repelled" and dismissed reports of missing troops. Twenty-two jihadists were killed while one soldier was injured, he added. At least 20,000 people have been killed in Boko Haram violence and more than two million others made homeless in northeast Nigeria since 2009. Posted by: trailing wife 2018-07-17 |
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