Nigeria fighting 'kills scores' in Baga 22

Baga was destroyed in fires Intense fighting between the military and
Islamist militants in northern Nigeria is reported
to have killed at least 185 people, however the
army has disputed this figure. Rocket-propelled grenades and heavy gunfire
bombarded the remote town of Baga near the border
with Chad for hours on Friday evening, officials say. Some 40% of the town was destroyed by fire, one
rescue worker said. Nigeria faces a long-running insurgency in its
predominantly Muslim north. The Boko Haram insurgency has left thousands of
people dead since 2009. 'Markets burnt' Residents of Baga fled into the bush and only
returned on Sunday afternoon to find much of the
town destroyed and human and animal corpses
strewn through the streets. One local journalist said this marked a significant
escalation in the insurgency in the area, with the
militants using heavier weapons than in previous
attacks. BBC Nigeria correspondent Will Ross says this may
prove to be the most deadly incident involving Boko
Haram since a series of bombings in January last
year in Kano left at least 160 people dead. One resident, Bashir Isa, told Associated Press:
"Everyone has been in the bush since Friday night;
we started returning to town because the governor
came. "To get food to eat in the town now is a problem
because even the markets are burnt. We are still
picking corpses of women and children in the bush
and creeks.'' Residents said most of the bodies had been burned
beyond recognition in blazes that had destroyed
much of the town. "Forty percent of the town has been gutted by fire.
Many residents are still unaccounted for and for now
it is assumed that they fled into the bush," one
rescue official, who did not want to be named, told
the AFP news agency. Bodies are still being found and buried on Monday,
two of the town's inhabitants told BBC Hausa. One eyewitness told the BBC that the fighting
started when gunmen entered a video-viewing
centre, looking for a man, who then fled. The militants opened fire, attracting the attention of
nearby soldiers, who were initially overpowered,
before returning with reinforcements, leading to a
fierce gunbattle, he said. Local official Lawan Kole said that 185 people -
including civilians, members of the security forces
and attackers - had been buried. However, Borno state military spokesman Lt Col
Sagir Musa told AFP that such a high number of
deaths was "unthinkable". "On my honour as an officer, nothing like that
happened." Correspondents note that the Nigerian military often
plays down the number of people killed in clashes
with militants. An unnamed local official told AFP that dozens of
people had been killed in the fighting. Communications with parts of northern Nigeria are
difficult since mobile phone masts were destroyed
by militants. Isa Umar Gusau, an adviser to Borno state's
governor, told BBC Hausa: "It is very difficult to establish the number of
casualties exactly. "The figure of casualties given might not be correct,
but we value human life. We regret the loss of even
one live of any human being in Borno state." Boko Haram wants to carve out an Islamic state in
northern Nigeria. Its name in the local Hausa language means:
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