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Saturday, August 01, 2009 MAIDUGURI: Nigeria's national police claimed victory Friday over a radical Islamist sect after its leader was killed by security forces but experts warned revenge attacks could occur and a leading human rights group demanded a probe into the killing.Nigerian officials said Mohammed Yusuf, the leader of the sect some call the Nigerian Taliban, was killed after being captured Thursday night at the end of a four-day manhunt."This group operates under a charismatic leader. They will no more have any inspiration," national police spokesman Emmanuel Ojukwu told The Associated Press on Friday. "The leader who they thought was invincible and immortal has now been proved otherwise."Ojukwu said there are still some isolated cases of violence in northern Nigeria, but otherwise "life is back to normal."New York-based Human Rights Watch called for an investigation."The Nigerian authorities must act immediately to investigate and hold...

Thursday, July 30, 2009 ABUJA: At least 43 people have died in a gun battle in the northern Nigerian state of Yobe as security forces hunt down members of an Islamist sect.A police source said the killings happened in Hawan Malka, an area on the outskirts of Potiskum, Yobe's second largest city.The clash came as Nigerian soldiers patrolled the northern city of Maiduguri on Wednesday searching for the remaining members of Boko Haram.Nearly 300 people have been killed since Nigeria launched the crackdown, which included the shelling of a compound believed to be home to sect leader Mohammed Yusuf.The attack destroyed buildings including a small mosque, although the preacher's whereabouts remain unknown.Yusuf's supporters - armed with machetes, knives, home-made rifles and petrol bombs - have attacked churches, police stations, prisons and government buildings in parts of the mostly Muslim north.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009 BAUCHI: Nigeria's security forces on Monday fought gun battles with radical Islamists who went on a rampage torching churches, police posts and government buildings in four northern states. Police put the number of dead from the weekend religious clashes at 55 in two states of Bauchi and Yobe, as of early Monday morning. In Borno state, heavily armed Islamist rebels torched a police headquarters, a church and a customs office in the border town of Gamboru-Ngala overnight before moving to the state capital Maiduguri where battles ran into the afternoon. A Nigerian Islamist sect styled on Afghanistan's Taliban burnt down a central prison in Maiduguri, two police stations, several churches, a government primary school and offices of a state unemployment bureau. "The situation has degenerated into big battles between the Taliban ... and the soldiers and police. Since morning, you can hear nothing but gunfire all over the city," resident Sanisu Aham...

Thursday, July 23, 2009 ABUJA: Nigeria's oil production has been cut to about 1.5 million barrels of crude per day -- less than half of its capacity -- by rebel attacks in the main producing region and the international economic crisis, Petroleum Minister Rilwanu Lukman said Wednesday."Our daily production is around 1.5 million barrels of crude and about 500,000 barrels of condensate and natural gas liquid, around two million barrels if you add the condensate with the oil," Lukman said. The minister said "more than half of our capacity" is lost because of militant activities in the Niger delta and the international crisis. "When the market calls for more, we are ready to supply and when the situation in the Niger delta improves, we will be in a position to supply more," Lukman said.Nigeria, an OPEC member, is the world's eighth largest oil producer.