Islamic militants attack Nigerian air force base

[December 02, 2013]  MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — Witnesses say hundreds of Islamic militants in trucks and a stolen armored personnel carrier attacked an air force base on the outskirts of Nigeria's northeastern city of Maiduguri.

Explosions and automatic gunfire could be heard across the sleeping city in the pre-dawn attack Monday that government and military officials said may have killed scores of people.

Witnesses, who refused to be named out of concern for their own security, said they saw bodies with slit throats and corpses of insurgents burning in vehicles.

The daring attack comes a week after the military bombarded forest hideouts of the Boko Haram armed Islamic network with airstrikes and ground assaults.

Northeast Nigeria is in the throes of an Islamic uprising that has killed thousands since 2009.

[Associated Press]

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