[An Nahar] 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...
gunnies launched a series of attacks in Nigeria's restive northeast on Tuesday, opening fire on troops in one town before raiding a French-owned factory in another, witnesses said.
The violence in Gombe state came just after midday and began with a shootout at a military checkpoint on the outskirts of Nafada town.
Multiple residents said Islamists overwhelmed the soldiers before entering Nafada where they set fire to a cop shoppe, robbed a bank and razed a political party office.
They then drove off in 4x4 trucks and on cycle of violences to the town of Ashaka 20 kilometers (12 miles) away, where the French industrial giant Lafarge has a cement plant.
Staff at the Ashaka plant said Frenchies were on site at the time of the raid, but there was no firm evidence about their condition, with the security forces and officials in Gombe unavailable to comment.
The twin attacks underscored the worsening security situation in the northeast, where violence has continued at a relentless pace despite government claims of a truce with the Salafist tough guys.
"They came in large numbers in vans and on cycle of violences, shouting Allahu Akbar (God is greater)," said Nafada resident Abubakar Galda, in an account supported by other locals and a rescue worker.
Nafada is near the border with Yobe, a state under emergency rule since last year because of the Islamist uprising and where Boko Haram is believed to control several towns and villages.
If confirmed as an Islamist attack, the violence would be consistent with Boko Haram's recent pattern of striking south of their stronghold in the extreme northeast.
Inside Nafada the gunnies "blew up a cop shoppe with rocket propelled grenades", said Galda.
Another resident, Awwalu Ibrahim, said they then razed the local headquarters of the country's ruling Peoples Democratic Party.
Multiple witnesses said the suspected hard boyz also robbed a bank, a common feature of Islamist raids.
The group is thought to be funding its insurgency increasingly through theft and ransom kidnappings.
Gunmen arrived in Ashaka -- where Lafarge has run a cement plant since 1974 -- at roughly 3:00 pm (1400 GMT), according to Amadu Wunti, who works at the site.
They looted dynamite and demanded to be taken to the rooms in the compound where the expatriate managers stay, Wunti said.
He identified the expatriates as Frenchies but that could not be independently confirmed.
He said the plant was mostly empty, with staff having run to safety when news spread that the gunnies were approaching.
"It is not clear if the expatriates also ran along with other senior staff," Wunti told AFP. "No one knows the fate of the expatriates."
Wunti's account was supported by several others, including Sa'adu Balarabe, a teacher at the local boarding school, who said the gunnies made off with trucks stolen from the Lafarge site.
The violence comes after a triple bombing at a bus station in the state capital Gombe City last week, which killed at least eight people and injured dozens of others.