Nigeria Terrorist Attack Kills At Least 65 People

At least 65 people were killed in a spate of coordinated gun and bomb attacks in the Nigerian city of Damaturu on Friday, with witnesses describing dozens of bodies piling up in morgues.

Gunmen raided the city and nearby village of Potiskum – both in Yobe state in the north east – on Friday evening, and engaged in several hours of running gun battles with security forces, witnesses said.

Militants bombed churches, mosques and police stations.

Though no one has claimed responsibility, the Islamist sect Boko Haram has been behind previous attacks.

"This place was like a war zone last night. There is no single policeman on the street now, the attacks destroyed mosques and churches, I have seen many injured persons in the hospital," said Benard Ogbeifun, a Damaturu resident.

"There were dozens of dead bodies, and no vehicles on the road. I'm staying in my shop and praying." An internal memo from an emergency relief agency, sent to Reuters, said: "The police headquarters, [military] Joint Task Force Office and five Churches were attacked with explosives ... and there was also an exchange of gunfire between the Security operatives and the unknown gunmen in Damaturu, the state capital."

16 other people were wounded by gunshots at the two locations, all but three of them hospitalised. It described the situation in the city on Saturday as "relatively calm".

Seven police officers and two soldiers were among the dead in Damaturu, a military source said.

The attacks followed multiple bomb blasts in nearby Maiduguri, making Friday one of the worst days of violence in the northeast since Boko Haram launched an insurgency against Nigerian authorities in 2009.

The triple suicide bombing of military headquarters in Maiduguri and three roadside bombs in different parts of it wounded at least seven pehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifople shortly after Friday prayers.

The sect has overtaken militants in the oil-rich Niger delta as the country's main security problem.

Another witness to the Damaturu violence, Umar Gambo, said he had seen several dozen dead bodies at the local morgue.

"The streets are deserted, but I saw at least 80 dead bodies in the mortuary. There is no high presence of security on the streets and two banks were bombed," he said.

Source: GuardianUK