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Image captures the smoldering wreckage of St. Theresa Catholic Church at Madalla, Suleja, just outside Nigeria's capital of Abuja on Dec. 25, 2011. Militants launched a series of arson attacks and massacres against churches in northern Nigeria on Dec. 24, 2012. (Photo: Afolabi Sotunde/Courtesy Reuters)
Suspected Boko Haram militants killed at least six Christians and burned down a church in the northern Nigerian state of Yobe late on Christmas Eve, according to Nigerian army and local officials. The attack against the Church of Christ in Nations occurred in Peri village near the economic hub of Potiskum. The attackers killed a pastor and at least five worshipers during Christmas Eve services.
The hostages - from Italy, Britain, Greece and Lebanon - were captured in a raid on a construction site in the northern state of Bauchi. In an online statement posted on Saturday, the militant group Ansaru said it had killed the captives. Ansaru is suspected of being an offshoot of the Boko Haram network. On Sunday, UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said a British construction worker, named as Brendan Vaughan, was "likely to have been killed at the hands of his captors, along with six other foreign nationals". "This is an unforgivable act of pure, cold-blooded murder, for which there can be no excuse or justification," he added.
The Italian government issued a similar statement, while the Greek foreign ministry said: "The information we have shows that the Greek citizen is dead." Ansaru's online message included grainy pictures purporting to show the bodies of the seven - a Briton, an Italian, a Greek and four Lebanese workers. The group said they had been killed because of a rescue attempt by British and Nigerian forces. But in its statement, the Italian foreign ministry said: "There was never any military attempt to rescue the hostages by any of the governments concerned." It added that the group's actions "can have no explanation other than blind and barbaric violence".
Britain's military said its warplanes which were recently spotted in Nigeria's capital Abuja had been there to carry soldiers taking part in the French-led operation in Mali - not to rescue hostages. The seven hostages were seized in a raid from a site belonging to the Setraco construction company. It resulted in the death of a guard. Ansaru said it had carried out the attack in revenge for what it called atrocities by European nations against Islam.
The group, formed in January 2012, has been listed by the UK government as a "terrorist organisation" aligned with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. It abducted French national Francis Colump in December in an attack on a compound in the northern state of Katsina. In January Ansaru said it had carried out an attack that killed two Nigerian soldiers as they prepared to deploy to Mali, where French-led troops have been fighting Islamic militants.
BBC News - Nigerian hostage deaths: Ansaru claims backed
Nigeria's police, military, domestic spy service and presidency remained silent over the killings of the construction company workers, kidnapped Feb. 16 from northern Bauchi state. The government's silence only led to more questions about the nation's continued inability to halt attacks that have seen hundreds killed in shootings, church bombings and an attack on the United Nations. The latest victims were four Lebanese and one citizen apiece from Britain, Greece and Italy.
Britain and Italy said all seven of those taken from the Setraco construction company compound had died at the hands of Ansaru, a previously little-known splinter group of the Islamic sect Boko Haram. Greece also confirmed one of its citizens was killed, while Lebanese authorities didn't immediately comment. "It's an atrocious act of terrorism, against which the Italian government expresses its firmest condemnation, and which has no explanation," a statement from Italy's foreign ministry read. Italy also denied a claim by Ansaru that the hostages were killed before or during a military operation by Nigerian and British forces, saying there was "no military intervention aimed at freeing the hostages."
Italian Premier Mario Monti identified the slain Italian hostage as Silvano Trevisan and promised Rome would use "every effort" to stop the killers. British Foreign Secretary William Hague called the killings "an act of cold-blooded murder" and identified the U.K. victim as Brendan Vaughan. A statement from Greece's foreign ministry said authorities had already informed the hostage's family. "We note that the terrorists never communicated or formulated demands to release the hostages," the statement read, which also denied any military raid took place.
Ansaru issued a short statement Saturday saying its fighters kidnapped the foreigners from the construction company's camp at Jama'are, a town 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of Bauchi, the capital of Bauchi state. In the attack, gunmen first assaulted a local prison and burned police trucks, authorities said. Then the attackers blew up a back fence at the construction company's compound and took over, killing a guard in the process, witnesses and police said. Local officials in Nigeria initially identified one of the hostages as a Filipino, something the Philippines government later denied. The gunmen appeared to be organized and knew who they wanted to target, leaving the Nigerian household staff at the residence unharmed, while quickly abducting the foreigners, a witness said.
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But the Obama administration has not done the same. When asked about the attack, a senior Obama administration official said that the United States is "deeply concerned" about extremism in Nigeria, and pointed to the history of cooperation between the U.S. and Nigeria on security issues. "We are working closely with the Nigerian government to address the growing threat of violent extremism throughout Nigeria," the senior official said, adding that the U.S. also supports vocational training programs to help discourage radicalization and recruitment throughout Nigeria.
Boko Haramwhich translates to "Western education is sinful" in the Hausa languagehas carried out attacks in Nigerias north for roughly a decade, seeking to enforce Sharia law across Nigeria. The group has bombed churches in the past, but the group has also targeted Muslims, and is considered to be primarily opposed to the government and Western influence. More than 2,000 people have died in Boko Harram attacks since 2009, according to the BBC. While the State Department has labeled several individual Boko Haram leaders as terrorists, it is not clear why the Obama administration has not taken the extra step to label the entire organization a terrorist organization.
The Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) designation would freeze any U.S. assets, impose a travel ban on known members and affiliates, and prohibit Americans from offering the group material support, according to the State Department's website. Boko Haram is clearly a foreign organization engaged in terrorist activity that threatens U.S. national security, thus meeting the threshold for designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. Its time for the State Department to step up and designate them as such, said Senator James Risch, R-Idaho, in a statement. Risch introduced the Boko Haram Terrorist Designation Act of 2013, which was referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in January.
Pressure to label the Nigerian group has also come from within the administration. In January of 2012, Lisa Monaco, then the assistant attorney general in the Justice Department, wrote to the State Departments coordinator for counterterrorism requesting the department name Boko Haram as a FTO. Monaco currently serves as the assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism for the Obama administration. Possible explanations for reluctance to label the group can be found in a 2012 letter to then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from Nigeria experts, including John Campbell, the U.S. ambassador to Nigeria under President George Bush.
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But now it appears that members of Boko Haram, widely reputed to be linked to Al Qaeda, despite frequent loud denials from Obama Inc, are joining them on the cannibal front lines. Dozens of suspected Boko Haram militants in Magumeri forest, Borno state, north east Nigeria, have turned to human eaters after being stranded for days without food or water.
Magumeri forest is about 150 kilometres from Maiduguri, the state capital. The incredible story was related by Malam Momodu Bukar, who claimed to be part of the insurgency group. He told newsmen on Saturday in Maiduguri that he fled the camp at the forest on Thursday when it became obvious that he was going to be eaten. I thank God that I escaped because I would have been slaughtered by now to provide meal for my colleagues at the camp, Bukar said.
That wouldnt necessarily be a problem under Islam. In times of emergency, theres a cannibal hierarchy. First you eat infidels, then Muslims who stop praying. Clearly some of the Boko Haram Jihadists had not stayed current with their prayers and went into the pot.
Boko Haram Joins Free Syrian Army in Descending into Cannibalism | FrontPage Magazine
Of course Yousef Mohammed doesn't care about these radical Muslims in Nigeria slitting the throats of pastors or the bombing of churches with Christian worshippers inside. He doesn't seem to even blink when his fellow Muslims are even murdering each other. You don't care, Yousef, that your fellow Shiites are leaving Pakistan for Australia because they are getting tired of being suicide or car bombed in Pakistan?
How nice that Yousef Mohammed treats us to a little bit of Taqiyya. Do tell us, Yoursef, what do you think about the pastors having their throats slit in Nigeria and churches bombed with people inside praying by that ever so peaceful Muslim group.I only play the part of a nasty Muslim, in your head
How nice that Yousef Mohammed treats us to a little bit of Taqiyya. Do tell us, Yoursef, what do you think about the pastors having their throats slit in Nigeria and churches bombed with people inside praying by that ever so peaceful Muslim group.I only play the part of a nasty Muslim, in your head
