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| Africa Subsaharan |
| 15 civilians killed in 'suicide attack' in Nigeria |
| 2014-04-02 |
| [An Nahar] Fifteen non-combatants were killed and 17 others were maimed in a suicide kaboom in northeast Nigeria ... a particularly crimson stretch of Islam's bloody border... carried out by suspected Boko Haram ... 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... myrmidons, the military said on Tuesday. Defense front man Chris Olukolade said one of the victims was a member of a civilian vigilante group and that the blast, on the outskirts of the capital of restive Borno state, Maiduguri, destroyed eight vehicles. "Six of the bully boyz died while one has been tossed in the calaboose Book 'im, Mahmoud! ," he added in a statement. Earlier in the day, four would-be jacket wallahs planning to blow up a petrol station died in Nigeria's troubled northeast after soldiers opened fire on their explosives-packed cars, the military and witnesses said. The suspected Boko Haram Islamists were trying to attack a filling station owned by Nigeria's state oil firm on the outskirts of Maiduguri, the epicenter of a brutal insurgency which has already killed an estimated 1,500 people this year. Olukolade said in a statement that "three of the four explosive-laden vehicles were demobilized by shots fired at them by soldiers". Shortly after the officers opened fire an kaboom "rocked the area", said Olukolade, adding that "four terrorists" died and five soldiers were maimed. Initial reports indicated that the troops stationed at the checkpoint on the Maiduguri-Damboa road were the target. But witnesses later said the attackers were trying to speed through the checkpoint so they could set off the blasts at the petrol station, which was backed up with vehicles because of fuel shortages across Nigeria, Africa's top oil producer. Local residents said some soldiers or bystanders may have been killed by the blasts but there was no immediate confirmation. |
| Posted by:Fred |