Nigerian Troops Attack Islamist Mosque, Kill 100

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Source: AP

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria – Troops shelled the compound of an Islamist sect blamed for days of violence in northern Nigeria then attacked its mosque, killing at least 100 militants in a fierce battle.

Sect leader Mohammed Yusuf escaped along with about 300 followers but his deputy was killed in Wednesday night's bombardment, according to Army commander Maj. Gen. Saleh Maina.

The army was conducting a house-to-house manhunt Thursday on the outskirts of Maiduguri for Yusuf and his followers.

An AP reporter watched soldiers shoot their way into the mosque in Maiduguri on Wednesday and then rake those holed up inside with gunfire. The reporter later counted about 50 bodies inside the building and another 50 in the courtyard outside. The militants were armed with homemade hunting rifles, bows and arrows and scimitars.

Another five corpses were just inside a large house near the mosque. Maina pointed to the body of a plump, bearded man and said it the Boko Haram sect's vice chairman, Bukar Shekau.

"The mission has been accomplished," said Maina, the army commander.

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1. Nigerian forces kill 200 sect followers: police

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — Nigerian forces said they had killed 200 followers of an Islamist sect Thursday along with its deputy leader in a raid as they tried to crush the movement in its northern stronghold.

Troops pounded the self-styled Taliban's base in the northern city of Maiduguri throughout the night and then gunned down followers as they tried to flee in the morning, witnesses and security sources said.

"We have taken over their enclave, they are on the run and we are going after them," Colonel Ben Ahonotu, the operation's commander, told AFP.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i6dPWyBMCRlA4mkhXMxBd3uKMcqQ

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2. Nigeria: Rights worker says civilians being killed

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria – Nigeria's League for Human Rights says overzealous security forces are killing innocent civilians as the military tries to crush an Islamist militant sect.

League director Shamaki Gad Peter tells The Associated Press that rights workers saw the bodies of up to 20 people after troops began an offensive on the sect's headquarters in Maiduguri on Wednesday.

He says they were unarmed and some were shot from behind and assumed to be trying to escape the mayhem. The rights worker says many other innocent people have been arrested.

The government has blamed the Boko Haram sect for days of violence in Muslim-dominated northern Nigeria and was hunting down sect members on Thursday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090730/ap_on_re_af/af_nigeria_violence