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Posted on 01/04/2004 6:59:00 PM PST by miltonim
After two weeks of running gun battles that killed at least eight people, Nigeria said Saturday it had routed a newly emerged Muslim militant movement fighting to create an Islamic state in Africa's most populous nation.
Two police officers and at least six of the militants died in the clashes in three towns in northeast Yobe state.
The battles saw about 200 of the Islamic extremists raid two police stations for arms, burn another, and occupy a public school building that they renamed ``Afghanistan,'' Jirigi said.
The group involved was the Al Sunna Wal Jamma group.
The largely university-based student group was taking up arms for the first time after two years of preaching Islamic revolution.
The name in Arabic means ``marching in protest to a holy place.''
Nigeria's 126 million population is made up of a largely Islamic north and a heavily Christian south.
A dozen northern states started adopting Islamic law, or Shariah, three years ago.
The move has heightened religious tensions, sparking violence that has killed thousands.
The Yobe state uprising appears the largest and best-planned of any involving Islamic or Christian militants in Nigeria.
Violence started last week when militants attacked two police stations in Geidam and Kanamma, killing a policeman, Jirigi said.
Some members retreated to a primary school in Kanamma where they hoisted a flag with the word ``Afghanistan.''
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