Gunmen in army uniform execute five in east Nigeria

MAIDUGURI (Reuters) - Gunmen
in military uniform abducted
five people in eastern
Nigeria, tied their hands and
shot them dead, police said on
Saturday.
The attack overnight took
place in Dananaca village,
Taraba state, which is usually
peaceful but which suffered a
bombing at the hands of
Islamist militants last week.
"The police are still
investigating to ascertain if
the people are real soldiers
and from which unit," police
spokesman for Taraba state
Ibiam Mbaseki told Reuters by
telephone.
"If they were genuine military
men, they would have
contacted us before carrying
out such an operation, but we
don't know where they came
from."
Islamist sect Boko Haram,
blamed for dozens of
shootings and bombings since
it launched an uprising in
2009, has sought to extend
its reach too much of the
north and the capital Abuja.
The group has become
President
Goodluck
Jonathan's number one
security headache.
Suspected sect members
attending a wedding party on
Saturday opened fire on a
military surveillance team
monitoring the event, killing
three civilians, Lieutenant
Colonel Sagir Musa of the joint
military task force said.
Security forces combating
Boko Haram complain that
they hide amongst the civilian
population, but the military's
heavyhanded crackdowns and
summary executions of
suspects has angered the
already alienated population
of northern Nigeria.
The sect's armed struggle
intensified after its spiritual
leader Mohammed Yusuf died
in police custody in 2009.
A bomb blast struck a police
chief's convoy in eastern
Nigeria's Taraba state on
Monday, killing 11 people in
the first such insurgent
attack in the state.
A flurry of arrests of top
figures in recent months had
raised hopes the Boko Haram
insurgency could be on the
wane, but attacks in the past
two weeks suggest they are
very much still at large.
Insecurity has spread across
the north.
Suspected Boko Haram
militants stormed a prison in
their northeastern heartland
on Friday, killing two guards
and freeing the inmates, police
said.
Gunmen threw bombs and
opened fire on a cattle
market in remote
northeastern Nigeria on
Wednesday, killing at least 60
people, a spokesman for the
Yobe state governor said.
It was not clear if the killers
were Islamists or a criminal
gang.

Source: Tribune Newspaper