Forces in Nigeria defend city against Boko Haram

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — Nigerian troops backed by airstrikes beat back Boko Haram Islamists trying again to seize the capital of northeastern Borno state, a military spokesman said.

“The terrorists incurred massive casualties,” Abuja-based military spokesman Chris Olukolade said in an emailed statement about the attack on the city of Maiduguri. “The situation is calm as a mopping-up operation in the affected area is ongoing.”

Soldiers said hundreds of insurgents died. Several civilians were killed by aerial bombs, grenades and mortar shells on the ground, witnesses said.

In a separate attack, a suspected Boko Haram suicide bomber killed himself and eight others Sunday at the home of politician Sabo Garbu in Potiskum, in neighboring Yobe state, according to witness Abdullahi Mohammed.

Garbu is contesting a legislative seat in Feb. 14 balloting that includes a presidential election too close to call. Boko Haram denounces democracy.

Boko Haram has escalated its violent campaign to impose Shariah, or Islamic law, in Africa’s biggest economy and top oil-producing nation ahead of elections.

Attacks late Saturday in towns across Borno state, including Bama, Ngom, Alou, Delwa and Mafa, were “effectively contained,” Olukolade said. Weapons including two armored vehicles, two artillery guns and 17 pickup trucks were captured from fleeing militants.

In Maiduguri, a senior army officer said the militants were “everywhere,” attacking from all four roads leading into the city.

Another officer said hundreds of insurgents, as many as 500, were killed before they took flight Sunday and many weapons were recov- ered including artillery guns and rocket-propelled grenades. Both officers spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not supposed to speak to reporters.

The military called in aerial bombardments to blunt the attack on Maiduguri, the biggest city in Nigeria’s northeast with about 2 million people, said Hassan Ibrahim, a member of a youth vigilante group that fought in conjunction with the Nigerian military.

Witnesses said some bombs launched from a Nigerian jet fighter killed civilians. Many homes were hit by bombs, including one in Zannari neighborhood that killed seven civilians, according to neighbors who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation from the military.

Ahmadu Marima said troops shot and killed five young men from a civilian self-defense group in his Abujantalakawa suburb, mistaking them for insurgents.

An elderly man and his granddaughter died when a rocket-propelled grenade exploded in their front garden, injuring a second girl, Marima said.

Borno state Governor Kashim Shettima commended the “gallantry” of troops, backed by the local youth vigilante group.

“We will, as government, continue to afford them all they need within the limits of resources at our disposal,” Shettima said in an emailed statement.

At least 65 people were killed Jan. 25 when the Islamists tried to capture Maiduguri. The military successfully defended both the regional capital and Konduga, about 20 miles to the north, though it lost Mungono, a town further north, to the insurgents.

The attack on Maiduguri came as Chadian forces launched a winning offensive, acting on an African Union directive for Nigeria’s neighbors to help fight the nation’s home-grown Boko Haram extremists.

A Chadian jet fighter supported by ground troops bombed the extremists out of Gamboru and Kolfata on Saturday and from Malumfatori on Thursday, witnesses said.

Chadian troops in Kolfata were “dancing around their country’s flag and chanting,” farmer Awami Kolobe said, quoting refugees who returned across the border from Cameroon.

The Islamists on Jan. 3 captured the headquarters of a multinational joint task force’s base in Baga, in northeastern Nigeria, which was set up to combat the insurgency. They returned four days later, razing the town and neighboring Doron Baga and killing hundreds, according to Amnesty International.

African leaders agreed to set up a task force of 7,500 soldiers from Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger, Chad and Benin to counter Boko Haram, Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama said Saturday at a briefing in Accra, the capital of Ghana. The force will have its headquarters in N’Djamena, Chad’s capital, and a 12-month mandate starting in February, he said.

Boko Haram warned against the coalition and said it will attack Niger, if it sends troops, just as it has attacked Cameroon, according to a message posted Sunday by the SITE intelligence monitoring service.

The uprising killed about 10,000 people last year, compared with about 2,000 in the first four years, according to the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations. Information for this article was contributed by Michael Olukayode and Elisha Bala-Gbogbo of Bloomberg News and by Haruna Umar and Michelle Faul of The Associated Press.