Islamist gunmen free 732 prisoners in deadly attack on Nigerian jail
From The Telegraph
Over 700 prisoners have escaped a Nigerian jail after heavily armed Islamist gunmen attacked the prison in the central Nigerian city of Bauchi to free 150 Muslim fundamentalists held there. Tuesday night's attack is thought to have been carried out by Boko Haram, which means "Western education is sin" in local Hausa dialect, a Muslim fundamentalist group fighting for the creation of an Islamic state in Nigeria.
Mohammed Ahmed, the prison warden, said: "The prison had 762 inmates at the time of the attack. 732 escaped, leaving 30. All the Boko Haram suspects on remand have escaped. There were 150 of them." The gunmen killed four people including a soldier, a police officer and two local residents.
Salisu Mohammed, a prison guard, described how up to 50 Islamist militants, armed with machine guns, attacked the jail. Isa Hassan, a local resident, said the alleged sect members were chanting "Allahu Akbar" - or God is great - when they arrived.
The attack is seen as a sign that Boko Haram is preparing to strike again in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, which roughly divided in half between Christians and Muslims. The sect, often descibed as the "Nigerian Taliban", launched an uprising by last year with attacks on police posts. Police officers have been among the victims of a new wave of attacks by motorcycle-riding gunmen in northern Nigeria.
Posted on 09/08/2010 11:14 AM by Esmerelda Weatherwax
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