Nigeria Suicide Bombers Kill 15 In Failed
Oil Facility Attack: Army
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[April 02, 2014]
ABUJA (Reuters) — Suspected Islamist
suicide bombers killed 15 civilians in a failed attack on a state oil
company facility in northeast Nigeria, when soldiers at a checkpoint
opened fire on their explosive-packed vehicles, the military said on
Wednesday.
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Seventeen civilians and five soldiers were wounded by the blasts
on Tuesday which also destroyed eight vehicles, Defense Ministry
spokesman Chris Olukolade said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Olukolade said the bombers, believed to be from militant group Boko
Haram, were driving towards the Nigeria National Petroleum
Corporation facility at Mule. Four bombers died.
Mule is on the outskirts of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state
and the cradle of the Islamist insurgency.
"Three of the four explosive-laden vehicles were demobilized by
shots fired at them by soldiers at the checkpoint, shortly before
the explosions that rocked the area," Olukolade said.
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"A total of 15 civilians including a member of a youth vigilante
group died," he said.
Violence in Borno state is worse than at any time during its
4-1/2-year-old insurgency, residents say.
Enraged Boko Haram militants, fighting for an Islamic state in
Nigeria, have in the past year broadened their range of targets
beyond security forces, government officials and Christians to
include school children and other civilians, sometimes massacring
whole villages and abducting girls.
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A military crackdown since last May has failed to rout the
insurgency, which remains the leading security threat to Africa's
top oil producer and a serious headache for President Goodluck
Jonathan ahead of February 2015 elections.
The militants' use of explosive devices is on the rise again.
Suspected Islamists drove a car packed with explosives into a police
patrol in Maiduguri a week ago. They also bombed a crowded
marketplace on March 27 near the town of Bama.
(Reporting by Camillus Eboh; writing by Tim Cocks;
editing by Louise
Ireland)
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