Scores killed as army attacks mosque in Nigeria

Nigerian troops shelled an Islamic sect’s compound and broke into their mosque, touching off a raging gunbattle that left scores dead.

Military commander Major General Saleh Maina says the sect’s deputy leader is among the dead, but that the leader of the Taliban-style movement escaped and fled with some 300 followers.

Witnesses to last night’s attack on the mosque, the sect’s Maiduguri city headquarters, counted about 100 bodies.

Since Sunday militants seeking to impose Islamic Sharia law throughout the multi-religious country have attacked police stations, churches, prisons and government buildings. The attacks spread to three other states in northern Nigeria.