"At least 61 dead in northeast Nigeria violence" December 24, 2011|Njadvara Musa and Jon Gambrell, Associated Press
At least 61 people have been killed during several days of fighting in northeast Nigeria between security forces and a radical Muslim sect responsible for a series of increasingly bloody attacks in Africa’s most populous nation, authorities said Saturday.
The fighting between suspected members of the sect known as Boko Haram and a joint task force of police and military began Thursday in Borno and Yobe states in Nigeria’s arid northeast corner bordering Cameroon, Chad and Niger. The fighting left residents cowering in their homes amid gunfire and explosions.
At least 50 people have died in Damaturu and Potiskum in Yobe state during the fighting, local police commissioner Lawan Tanko told The Associated Press on Saturday....
In Yobe state, the fighting became so intense that the military ordered those living in a neighborhood surrounding Damaturu’s central mosque to evacuate. After a deadline, soldiers riding in armored personnel carriers and tanks drove into the neighborhood shooting, Tanko said.
“We were able to kill 12 of the Boko Haram armed sect and bombers,’’ Tanko said. The police commissioner said officers also recovered Kalashnikov rifles, ammunition and explosives.
Boko Haram has launched a series of bombings against Nigeria’s weak central government over the last year in its campaign to implement strict Shariah law across the nation of more than 160 million people home to both Christians and Muslims.
Boko Haram claimed responsibility for a Nov. 4 attack on Damaturu, Yobe state’s capital, that killed more than 100 people. The group also claimed the Aug. 24 suicide car bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Nigeria’s capital that killed 24 people and wounded 116 others.
See: Haram Scare 'em In Nigeria
Little is known about the sources of Boko Haram’s support, though its members recently began carrying out a wave of bank robberies in the north. Police stations also have been bombed and officers killed.
Starting to smell like an intelligence operation.
Boko Haram has splintered into three factions, with one wing increasingly willing to kill as it maintains contact with terror groups in North Africa and Somalia, diplomats and security sources say.
The sect is responsible for more than 450 killings in Nigeria this year alone, according to an AP count.
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"Nigerian church attacks kill 39" December 26, 2011|By Herbert Buchsbaum
BENIN CITY, Nigeria - A series of apparently coordinated bombings struck three churches during Christmas services across Nigeria yesterday, killing at least 39 people and solidifying a recent escalation in violence by a radical Muslim sect.
At least five bombings were reported, including three at churches and one at a state security building. The worst appeared to be at a packed Catholic church just outside the capital, Abuja, where a bomb tore through the building and killed worshipers leaving a morning Mass....
The militant Islamist sect Boko Haram, which seeks to impose Islamic law across the country, claimed responsibility for several of the bombings and was suspected in others.
The group also calls for the release of imprisoned members in the north, where mass unemployment and poverty have fueled social discontent. It appears to have the tacit support of many Nigerians, who see it as a direct challenge to a political elite widely seen as corrupt, analysts say.
Coming after several days of gun battles last week in which more than 60 people were killed and a wave of attacks in November that killed more than 100, the Christmas bombings were clearly intended to symbolically announce the group’s aims in a country whose 150 million people are about half Muslim and 40 percent Christian. The same group carried out a series of Christmas Eve bombings last year.
Related: Lead poisoning plagues Nigerian villages
Amazing how some things just slide right down the AmeriKan media memory hole, 'eh?
But the sect has broadened its targets from its base in the predominantly Muslim northeast, alarming Western intelligence agencies with the suicide car bombing of the UN headquarters in Abuja in August that killed 24 people....
In a separate attack on a church in Gadaka, just outside of Damaturu, the night before, the cars of worshipers were set on fire while their owners were inside the church, The Sunday Trust, a northern Nigerian newspaper, reported. There were no casualties in that attack.
Damaturu was the scene of heavy fighting between Boko Haram and Nigerian security forces on Thursday and Friday. The army said it killed more than 50 members of the sect, and that three of its soldiers were killed....
The White House condemned what it called “this senseless violence and tragic loss of life on Christmas Day,’’ and in a statement offered to assist Nigerian officials “in bringing those responsible to justice.’’
That just about confirms an intelligence agency front and false flag.
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Yeah, the U.S. is going to help:
"US offers to help Nigeria after fatal bombings" Associated Press December 27, 2011
MADALLA, Nigeria - The United States said yesterday that it would help Nigeria find those responsible for a series of Christmas bombings that killed dozens in the African nation.
“We have been in contact with Nigerian officials about what appear to be terrorist acts and pledge to assist them in bringing those responsible to justice,’’ White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said.
Crowds gathered outside the ruins of St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla a day after a terrorist attack killed at least 35 people and wounded scores of others, voicing anger over the attack and fears that the Muslim militant group behind it will target more churches.
The radical group known as Boko Haram launched coordinated attacks across Africa’s most populous nation within hours of one another, officials said. Four more people were killed in other violence blamed on the group.
It was the second year in a row that the extremists seeking to install Islamic Shariah law across the country of 160 million have staged Christmas attacks. Last year, a series of bombings on Christmas Eve killed 32 people in Nigeria....
The African Union condemned the attacks and pledged to support Nigeria in its fight against terrorism.
On Sunday, a bomb also exploded amid gunfire in the central Nigeria city of Jos and a suicide car bomber attacked the military in the nation’s northeast. Three people died in those assaults.
After the bombings, a Boko Haram spokesman using the assumed name Abul-Qaqa claimed responsibility for the attacks in an interview with The Daily Trust, the newspaper of record across Nigeria’s Muslim north. The sect has used the newspaper in the past to communicate with the public.
What is his name again?
Related: Sunday Globe Special: Qaqa in the Toilet
What an IN-YOUR-FACE LAUGHER!
One wonders if the guy even exists at all or whether he is just an INTELLIGENCE AGENCY CREATION and PROPAGANDA MOUTHPIECE.
"20 killed in northeast Nigeria shooting in town hall" Associated Press, January 07, 2012
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria - Gunmen from a radical Muslim sect attacked a town hall yesterday in rural northeast Nigeria, killing at least 20 people who had gathered for a meeting of traders who are members of a Christian ethnic group, police said.
The attack at noon targeted a town hall where Christian Igbo people were holding a meeting, with gunmen chanting “God is great’’ as they fired Kalashnikov rifles.
The killings claimed by Boko Haram came after the group threatened to begin targeting Christians living in the country’s Muslim north in its increasingly bloody sectarian fight with Nigeria’s weak central government. That could further inflame religious tensions in a nation gripped by civil unrest....
Gunmen also attacked a church in the northeast Nigeria city of Gombe during a prayer service Thursday night, spraying congregants with gunfire and killing at least eight people, local medical officials said.
In a statement yesterday to The Daily Trust newspaper, a Boko Haram spokesman claimed responsibility for the attacks in Gombe and Mubi.
More qaqa?
“We want to prove to the federal government of Nigeria that we can always change our tactics,’’ he said.
Sure smells like it.
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MAIDUGURI - A radical Muslim sect attacked a church during a worship service in Yola, killing eight people, authorities said yesterday. The assault was one of several that killed at least 15 people in northeast Nigeria. Christians vowed to defend themselves from the group’s widening sectarian fight against the government. The attacks by the sect known as Boko Haram come after it promised to kill Christians living in Nigeria’s largely Muslim north, exploiting longstanding religious and ethnic tensions in the multiethnic nation of more than 160 million people. The pledge by the leader of an umbrella organization called the Christian Association of Nigeria now raises the possibility of retaliation for the attacks, which killed 44 in the last few days alone."
Related: All Religion is Local in Nigeria
And if they are lying about that....
Related:
"Many Nigerians said they cannot understand why security agencies are still unable to infiltrate the rank of the notorious Islamic sect to get first-hand information and forestall successful bombings even when they openly indicate some of their locations and when they would attack."
Maybe because Boko Harem are security agencies.
MOSSAD & AMERICA BLAMED FOR TERROR ATTACKS BY BOKO HAREM IN NIGERIA
Bomb Blast: Israel to help FG tackle Boko Harem
I think they have done enough, don't you?
Also see: You know all those "Nigerian Scam" emails you got? Guess where they came from!