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Akintunde Akinleye / Reuters
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Boko Haram Islamic
extremists struck the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri for the first time
in months Monday with rocket-propelled grenades and multiple suicide bombers,
witnesses said. At least 30 people were killed and the death toll could go
higher. Nigerian
troops "intercepted and destroyed" 10 suicide bombers and repelled
the attackers, according to PR Nigeria, an agency that disseminates government
news.
Associated Press report continues:
Maiduguri,
the city under attack, is the birthplace of Boko Haram, which emerged as a much
more radical entity after Nigerian security forces launched an all-out assault
on their compound there, killing 700 people in 2009.
Militants
firing indiscriminately from the back of three trucks attacked the outlying
village of Dawari, soldiers engaged them, and as people were fleeing, a woman
ran into the area yelling "Boko Haram, Boko Haram." When people
gathered, she detonated herself, according to village head Bulama Isa.
A
rocket-propelled grenade exploded, setting alight grass-thatched huts, and a
second woman blew herself up, according to Isa. Meanwhile, in Duwari, an
outlying suburb of Maiduguri, the village chief, 10 of his children and others
were killed, according to residents Ahmed Bala and Umar Ibrahim.
A
soldier said the insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades into four
residential areas on the outskirts of the city. Soldiers fired back, and many
civilians were caught in the crossfire, according to the soldier, who spoke on
condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to journalists.
A
nurse and a guard at Maiduguri Specialist Hospital said at least 20 other
bodies arrived overnight and dozens of critically wounded, mainly children and
women, were also brought in.
The
nurse, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she is not authorized to
speak to reporters, said the hospital was so overflowing with patients that
some had to be cared for in the maternity ward. About 60 people had wounds from
bullets and shrapnel from explosive devices, she said. Other wounded people had
to be sent to other hospitals in the city.
Among
those at Specialist Hospital was a baby found dead, still tied to the back of
her mother, after being hit by shrapnel, the nurse said.
It
was hard to do a body count because so many had been blown into pieces, she
said, describing torsos and dismembered arms and legs.
The
guard said he counted about 70 people who arrived overnight, most of them
lifeless.
"The
troops laid ambush on the terrorists' suspected routes ... The suicide bombers
were intercepted in three different locations approaching the city," PR
Nigeria said, quoting the military.
Maiduguri, a city of about
1 million people, now hosts almost as many refugees, among 2.3 million people
driven from their homes in the 6-year-old uprising that has killed about 20,000
Nigerians.
Boko Haram Deploys Dozens Of Suicide
Bombers In Maiduguri Raid
RT
reports that at least 15, and potentially many more people were killed in the
city of Maiduguri on Sunday, where Boko Haram militants used multiple suicide
bombers and rocket-propelled grenades in an assault.
Nigerian
troops said they intercepted 10 suicide bombers, but at least two others
managed to inflict damage during the raid.
The
radical Islamist militants fired indiscriminately from the back of three trucks
as their attack went through the village of Dawari on the outskirts of Maiduguri,
AP reported. The village chief, together with 10 of his children and others
were killed, residents told the agency.
The
area is close to a major military base, the Giwa barracks, which Boko Haram
raided in January 2014 freeing hundreds of detainees.
The
attack is the second in three days, coming after the Christmas Friday raid by
Boko Haram on the Kimba village in Borno state, which left at least 14
residents dead and their homes destroyed.
The militant attacks came
on the same day that Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari declared the
government has “technically” defeated the jihadists. 
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