MAIDUGURI: An attack Thursday in restive northernNigeriawhere suspected militants stormed a police station and stole nearly $60,000 from a bank killed 20 insurgents and five officers, the local police chief said.
"Five policemen and 20 gunmen have been confirmed dead when some Boko Haram Terrorist attacked police formations in Gashua town," the Yobe state police commissioner, Sanusi Rufai, told journalists Friday. Nigeria's military had previously given a toll of seven dead in Thursday's clash.
Boko Haram, a group that says it is fighting to create an Islamic state in the north, has carried out scores of attacks inNigeria's northeast. The latest violence in Yobe came after what was likely the deadliest-ever episode in the insurgency when 187 people were killed last week in brutal clashes in neighbouring Borno state.
Aside from the raids on the police in Yobe, a common Boko Haram target, Rufai said the gunmen also "carted away nine million naira ($57,000) and two vehicles".
The Boko Haram conflict is estimated to have cost more than 3,000 lives, including killings by the security forces.
