Scores Killed, 4,000 Flee Nigeria Fighting

Nigerian troops shelled an Islamic sect's compound and broke into the mosque, the press of a raging gunbattle that left scores dead.

Military commander Maj. Gen. Saleh Maina says sect's deputy is among the dead, but as leader of the Taliban-style movement escaped and fled with about 300 supporters.

An AP reporter who watched the attack on the mosque counted about 100 bodies.

Since Sunday, the militants attacked police stations, churches, prisons and public buildings. The attacks spread to three other countries in northern Nigeria.

Army bombarded the town of Maiduguri sect's headquarters Wednesday evening.

Relief official Apollus Jediel said about 1,000 people had left their homes Wednesday, started in 3000 displaced this week in four states included in the violence.

It is not known how many scores of people have been killed. Police say most of the dead are militants from the group that wants to impose Taliban-style rule over this multi-religious country of 140 million. Dozens of people have been arrested.

Reporters on the ground say problems started with the militants attacked a police station in Bauchi State on Sunday. When they attack the police in Kano, Yobe and Borno, the capital, Maiduguri.

But President Umaru Yar'Adua contested it, saying its troops first.

"I want to emphasize that this is not an inter-religious crisis, and it is not the Taliban who are attacking security agents first, no. It was as a result of a safety information about its purpose ... to launch a major attack, "the Nigerian leader told journalists before he left Tuesday evening for a state visit to Brazil.

"The situation is under control," Yar'Adua said

But people around Maiduguri railway station, a stronghold of the sect, said they were kept up all night by running gun battles.

From sunrise, people began streaming out carrying capacity of bundles of assets and cooking pots and Brazier.

Sporadic bursts of gunfire that erupted on Wednesday morning.

Also Wednesday morning, reporters saw several bodies sprawled alleged militants outside the main entrance to the police headquarters, where hundreds of people have sought safety. Others are camping at two military barracks.

The sect's compound has been cordoned off since Monday by police and soldiers stepped up Tuesday by the elite troops under the command of Maj. Gen. Saleh Maina.

Maina Tuesday launched a mortar attack on the sect's sprawling compound, which is expected to stretch for about four kilometers.

"The shelling of the strongholds of the religious sect, mosques and operational point must be precise and fast to prevent further loss of life and property in this state," Maina said.

Smoke billowed from the area after his forces attacked.

Authorities imposed curfews on Tuesday evening and security forces poured into the streets.

The radical sect behind the recent violence is known by several names, including al-Sunna Wal Jamma, or "followers of Mohammed learn" and "Boko Haram" which means "Western education is sin."

Some Nigerian authorities have referred to the militants, the Taliban, even though the group has no known connection to Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

Riots, religious conflict, sectarian violence and common struggle over land and water regularly explode in northern Nigeria. According to reports commissioned over the years, they are often directed by politicians and religious leaders.

Analysts said that recent problems have brewed for months, since the police began raiding militant hideouts and found explosives and weapons.

While Nigerian officials profess secularism, and religious and ethnic intermarriage is common, religion is a sensitive, often political, issues.

Muslim and Christian leaders have condemned the recent violence.

Religious leaders, so the minarets of the mosque and the tower of the main reasons cathedral in Abuja, the capital, were the same height in order to promote cohesion among the sectarian violence unleashed by the end of military rule - the majority Muslim north in uniform - in 1999 .

Shariah - Islamic law - was conducted in 12 northern states in Nigeria returned to civilian rule. More than 10,000 Nigerian have died in sectarian violence since then.

"They were happy with the possibility of Sharia has been disappointed. ... Corruption does not stop when it came," said Junaid Mohammed, a former member of the Nigerian parliament. "People have been disappointed with the system and are looking for ways to vent their anger.

Violence was a common way to express political frustrations in Nigeria, Mohammed added, pointing to the ongoing kidnapping and bombing campaign in the Niger Delta, a southern region roiled by the fight over oil money.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed concern about reports of sectarian violence and demanded that those responsible are brought to justice.

"I urge the leadership of government in Nigeria, law enforcement and security agencies, and religious and leaders to work together to resolve the underlying causes of the frequent religious clashes in Nigeria, so a solution can be found through dialogue, tolerance and understanding," said he documents the news conference at the UN headquarters in New York.

After eight years of rule by an elected southern Christian, all the main political parties nominated northern, Muslim candidates for the 2007 presidential race. Some said it was a necessity in the former British colony roughly divided between a Christian-dominated south and Muslim north, where Arabs were old foothold.

Yar'Adua, who comes from an aristocratic Muslim family in the north, won the election. But he has struggled to resolve questions about the legitimacy of thugs openly bought votes stolen or stuffed ballot boxes and intimidate voters. About 200 people died in election-related violence.

Yar'Adua also challenged by a longstanding kidney disease. His opponents say his health, the costs he won power by fraud and his conservative personal style has made for an inefficient administration.

Nigeria should be rich, with its abundant oil reserves, but corruption and inefficiency have left most impoverished. Despite promises of reforms, Yar'Adua government, like its predecessors, has failed to deliver even basic services like water and electricity sent.

The current turmoil is expected to die down, as flare-ups have in the past.

Nnamdi K. Obasi, a Nigerian analyst at International Crisis Group, said that militants do not have weapons or to have much influence beyond the north. But the problem comes back, unless the deeper issues are handled.

"You talk about better governance as a whole," Obasi said. "Reduction of corruption. Year after year, you can not see progress in these areas, and this is one of the biggest problems in Nigeria.