8 May 2013
Posted on 05:07 by Unknown with No comments
It said 105 prisoners were freed in the
pre-dawn raid in Bama, Borno state.
Bama's police station, military barracks
and government buildings were burned
to the ground, said the military and
witnesses.
Correspondents say extremist attacks
are common in the region but the scale
of bloodshed makes this raid stand out.
This strike - coming on the back of other
deadly attacks - undermines the
suggestion that the military operation
against the militants has diminished the
threat they pose, says the BBC's Will
Ross in Lagos.
President Goodluck Jonathan has set up a
committee to agree the terms of an
amnesty for the rebels but Boko Haram's
leader, Abubakar Shekau, has so far
rejected the idea.
Tuesday's raid in the remote town began
when some 200 heavily-armed suspected
members of Boko Haram arrived in buses
and pick-up trucks at about 05:00 (04:00
GMT), said Musa Sagir, a military
spokesman based in Maiduguri, some
70km (44 miles) from Bama.
"Some of the gunmen attacked the
military barracks but they were repelled.
Ten of them were killed and two were
arrested," he told AFP news agency.
"But the gunmen broke into the prison,
freeing 105 inmates, and killed all prison
warders they could see except those
who hid in a store where cooking
utensils were kept," he said.
Some of the attackers wore army
uniforms for the assault, which continued
for almost five hours, he added.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment