Nigeria: 185 killed in battle with Islamic radicals

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

8:03 p.m. EDT April 21, 2013

BAGA, Nigeria (AP) — Fighting between Nigeria's military and Islamic extremists killed at least 185 people in a fishing community in the nation's far northeast, officials said Sunday, an attack that saw insurgents fire rocket-propelled grenades and soldiers spray machine-gun fire into neighborhoods filled with civilians.

The fighting in Baga began Friday and lasted for hours, sending people fleeing into the arid scrublands surrounding the community on Lake Chad. By Sunday, when government officials finally felt safe enough to see the destruction, homes, businesses and vehicles were burned throughout the area.

The assault marks a significant escalation in the long-running insurgency Nigeria faces in its predominantly Muslim north, with Boko Haram extremists mounting a coordinated assault on soldiers using military-grade weaponry. The killings also mark one of the deadliest incidents ever involving Boko Haram.

Authorities had found and buried at least 185 bodies as of Sunday afternoon, said Lawan Kole, a local government official in Baga. He spoke haltingly to Borno state Gov. Kashim Shettima in the Kanuri language of Nigeria's northeast, surrounded by still-frightened villagers.

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Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/04/21/nigeria-attack-extremists/2101855/

[TwilightGardener]

1. Geez, that's a hell of a lot of people.

[pscot]

2. Baga looks like a circular village

Miles from nowhere. It doesn't even seem to have a paved street, just dirt paths, radiating out into the bush.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Sounds like the beginning of a civil war

Boko Haram seems to have the arms to force a confrontation that destroyed the whole village - with the army being willing to destroy it too.

[lexw]

4. Wow. Spraying machine gun fire into neighborhoods filled with civilians?

[Alamuti Lotus]

5. Yeah, they should use drones like civilized governments...

For those keeping score, those are soldiers of "the good guys" spraying machine guns--good Christian soldiers backed by the US, fighting to make the world safe for the Shell Oil Corporation.