Dozens killed in northeast Nigeria attacks-witnesses

KANO, Nigeria, (Reuters) – Dozens were killed in a  spate of coordinated gun and bomb attacks in the northeastern  Nigerian city of Damaturu yesterday, leaving the city almost  deserted and bodies piling up in local morgues, witnesses said  today.
Suspected Boko Haram gunmen raided the city and the nearby  village of Potiskum, both in northeastern Yobe state, last  evening and engaged in several hours of running gun battles with  security forces.
“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 local Damaturu artisan Benard Ogbeifun.
“There were dozens of dead bodies, and no vehicles on the  road. I’m staying in my shop and praying.”
The attacks followed multiple bomb blasts in nearby  Maiduguri, making Friday one of the worst days of violence in  the northeast since Islamist sect Boko Haram launched an  insurgency against Nigerian authorities in 2009, vowing to  impose sharia law across the country.
The fighting in Damaturu killed dozens, witnesses said. Nine  security forces were amongst the dead, a military source said.  Militants bombed churches, mosques and police stations.
Another witness, Umar Gambo, said he had seen several dozen  dead bodies at the local morgue.
“The streets are deserted. I have lost count of dead bodies,  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. “I can’t understand why all this madness.”
A security source in Maiduguri, the heart of the Boko Haram  insurgency, said at least seven police and two soldiers had been  killed in the fighting in Damaturu. He had no figures for  civilian casualties.
Earlier in the day, a triple suicide bombing of military  headquarters in Maiduguri, northeast Nigeria’s biggest city, and  three roadside bombs in different parts of it, wounded at least  seven. The blasts all went off shortly after Friday prayers.
Boko Haram says it wants sharia law more widely imposed  across Nigeria. It draws much of its support from unemployed  youths in the remote, economically deprived north.
The group appears to be growing in sophistication and  security analysts believe it has made links with al Qaeda’s  north African affiliate.
A suicide car bomb attack against the United Nations’  Nigeria headquarters in Abuja killed 26 people.