Site of girls' abduction hit again

12 Nigeria troops reported killed in fight with extremists

A vendor sells newspapers Wednesday carrying articles about the kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls who remain in the hands of Boko Haram extremists.
A vendor sells newspapers Wednesday carrying articles about the kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls who remain in the hands of Boko Haram extremists.

BAUCHI, Nigeria -- Islamic militants again attacked the remote Nigerian town from which nearly 300 schoolgirls were kidnapped, Nigeria's military said Wednesday, resulting in a firefight that killed 12 soldiers and led angry troops to fire on a commanding officer.

Soldiers said the troops fired at a senior officer who went to pay respects to the killed soldiers, whose bodies were taken to a barracks in Maiduguri, the capital of northeastern Borno state.

It's another sign of demoralization in the military that is in charge of the search for the abducted schoolgirls. The failure of Nigeria's government and military to find them after the April 15 mass abduction has triggered national and international anger and forced Nigeria's government to accept international help last week.

Nigeria's Ministry of Defense played down Wednesday's shooting, saying soldiers "registered their anger about the incident by firing into the air. The situation has since been brought under control, as there is calm in the cantonment" in Maiduguri, about 80 miles north of Chibok, where the girls were abducted.

But soldiers who were at the scene at Mailamari Barracks said infuriated troopers fired directly at the vehicle carrying Maj. Gen. Ahmadu Mohammed, the general officer commanding the army's 7 Division. He was not hit.

The witnesses said the soldiers were angry because they wanted to spend the night in a village and told their command the road was dangerous after the attack around Chibok. They were ordered to travel instead and were ambushed, with at least 12 killed. The soldiers spoke on condition of anonymity because they want to keep their jobs.

The Ministry of Defense, which often exaggerates the number of the enemy killed and downplays its own losses, said four soldiers were killed along with several insurgents.

"Troops engaged the insurgents in a fierce combat and extricated themselves from the ambush killing several insurgents. Four soldiers however lost their lives during the ambush," said a statement from the ministry spokesman, Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade.

In Kalabalge, a village about 155 miles from the Borno state capital of Maiduguri, where the Boko Haram network was born, residents said they took matters into their own hands.

On Tuesday morning, after learning about an impending attack by the militant group, villagers ambushed two trucks, according to residents and a security official. At least 10 militants were detained and scores were killed, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to give interviews to journalists. It was not immediately clear where the detainees were being held.

Kalabalge trader Ajid Musa said that after residents organized the vigilante group, "it is impossible" for militants to successfully stage attacks there.

Borno is one of three Nigerian states where President Goodluck Jonathan has imposed a state of emergency, giving the military special powers to fight the Islamic extremist group, whose stronghold is in northeast Nigeria.

Britain and the U.S. are now actively involved in the effort to rescue the missing girls. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said FBI agents and a hostage-negotiating team are in Nigeria now, providing technology and other materials and working with "our Nigerian counterparts to be as helpful as we possibly can." U.S. reconnaissance aircraft are flying over Nigeria in search of the missing girls.

The group kidnapped the girls in the early hours of April 15 from a school in Chibok. At least 276 of them are still held captive, with the group's leader threatening to sell them into slavery. In a video released Monday, he offered to release the girls in exchange for the freedom of jailed Boko Haram members.

Mark Simmonds, Britain's top government official in Africa said Jonathan had "made it very clear that there will be no negotiation with Boko Haram that involves a swap of abducted schoolgirls for prisoners."

Meanwhile, Jonathan this week sought to extend the state of emergency for six more months in the states of Yobe, Adamawa and Borno.

That move is being opposed by some leaders in northern Nigeria. Yobe Gov. Ibrahim Gaidam said in a statement received Wednesday that the state of emergency period has been "marked more by failure than by success."

The measure was imposed May 14, 2013, and extended in December.

During this period Nigerian government forces have been accused of committing human-rights abuses and the threat from Boko Haram has appeared to intensify.

Boko Haram has killed more than 1,500 people this year. Although the security forces have forced the militants out of urban centers, they have struggled for months to dislodge them from hideouts in mountain caves and the Sambisa forest.

A Section on 05/15/2014

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