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Nigerian city hit by fresh blasts

23 December 2011 19:54 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A fresh round of explosions and gunfire hit the Nigerian city of Damaturu on Friday as authorities battled suspected members of Islamist sect Boko Haram, a day after unrest killed six people, APA reports quoting AFP.

Residents reported seeing trucks of soldiers arriving in Damaturu and said authorities gave them 30 minutes to evacuate the neighbourhood of Pompomari. Some took refuge at the city’s central mosque, one resident said.

"Our men have been battling with Boko Haram members," said Lawan Tanko, police commissioner for the northeastern state of Yobe, where Damaturu is located.

"Our men have been making attempts to go into the house they have been using as a hideout to defuse explosives, but they are facing some resistance from the Boko Haram elements who are detonating explosives and firing shots."

"We have all fled our homes," one Pompomari resident said by phone, adding he had taken refuge at the mosque. "We were given 30 minutes by soldiers to evacuate and they were about to launch an offensive on the Boko Haram members."

Unrest broke out on Thursday in Damaturu and two other northeastern cities, Maiduguri and Potiskum. The death toll from Thursday was at least six, an official and a medical source said.

"From reports I have received from Potiskum, five people were killed in last night’s attack -- four policemen and a civilian," said Ibrahim Farinloye, northeast coordinator for the National Emergency Management Agency.

"Three police vans were also burnt in the attack."

A hospital source in Damaturu had said late Thursday that a soldier was killed and seven police officers were wounded there. He said a 10-year-old boy was being operated on after being hit by gunfire.

Tanko had said Thursday night that suspected Boko Haram members had carried out bombings and shootings in Damaturu.

He said he did not have details on casualties, but added that a church and a military patrol van were burnt. He said the attackers had been repelled and pushed toward Potiskum.

A military spokesman in Maiduguri said multiple blasts hit the city on Thursday, but could not give further details. An army source said six explosions were heard.

Maiduguri has borne the brunt of the violence attributed to Boko Haram, which has claimed responsibility for scores of attacks in the north as well as the August suicide bombing of UN headquarters in the capital Abuja that killed at least 24.