May 5th, 2012
VOA– A wedding thrown by members of the radical Boko Haram Islamist group ended in deadly violence Saturday.
A Nigerian military spokesman said troops were monitoring the wedding in the northeastern city of Maiduguri when members of the Boko Haram sect opened fire on them. Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa said three civilians were killed and four people were wounded.
Musa said soldiers only began firing after they came under attack.
The shooting is the latest in a series of increasingly violent incidents possibly involving the radical Islamist group.
Officials in eastern Taraba state said gunmen in military uniforms abducted five people from a remote, tied their hands and shot and executed them late Friday.
Nigerian officials blamed Boko Haram militants Friday for a deadly jailbreak, also in the country’s northeast.
Authorities in Borno state said gunmen stormed the prison and killed two guards, allowing an unknown number of prisoners to escape. Police spokesman Samuel Tizhe said 23 prisoners have since been recaptured.
Some Nigerians also alleged the group might have been involved in a brutal cattle raid earlier this week that left 34 people dead.
The attack on a cattle market in the northern city of Potiskum also injured more than 20 people. Scores of livestock were killed, stolen or maimed.
Witnesses say the attack followed an earlier incident where a gang sought to rob traders at the market. One of the robbers was caught while trying to escape and burned to death.
The gunmen returned later that night shooting indiscriminately at the market and throwing explosives.
