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Boko Haram: Borno residents arm themselves against attack

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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); color: black; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-size: 19px;">                      </span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlz-ZrDeAPmjoDtaKVkYr5M_QlsKzEpA-w4sqwuq33gP2fMINvsUG7ehAUo7aR5gE1hsNYI4GYV2QPP89CXi61dyX8I75gmCNLogOEEFACHboXCzaCna-simcRj_RfICPvgQ63Zr8aolo/s1600/civilian-jtf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlz-ZrDeAPmjoDtaKVkYr5M_QlsKzEpA-w4sqwuq33gP2fMINvsUG7ehAUo7aR5gE1hsNYI4GYV2QPP89CXi61dyX8I75gmCNLogOEEFACHboXCzaCna-simcRj_RfICPvgQ63Zr8aolo/s1600/civilian-jtf.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 1px 1px 5px; border: 1px solid rgb(255, 255, 255); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="400" /></a></span></div>
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Following the incessant attacks by the Boko Haram, and the capture of Damboa, GWOZA and recently Ngamboru Ngala and Bank area by the insurgents, residents of Maiduguri, North-East Nigeria, now carry locally made guns freely to protect themselves.<br /><br />The insurgency has also led to the displacement of thousands in the rural communities.<br /><br />It is not strange to see youths openly displaying locally made firearms.<br /><br />DailyPost reports that the creation of the civilian JTF, a vigilante group comprising of young men, who volunteered to protect communities, has further compounded the matter as they are seen all over the city centre carrying locally made guns.<br /><br />Wary of the need to protect their lives, they argue that it had become necessary to be fully armed at all times.<br /><br />According to them, the Boko Haram members are too deadly to be taken for granted.<br /><br />A local community leader, Mohammed Ali, who was also seen carrying firearms, told DailyPost in Hausa that it became necessary given the situation the people found themselves.<br /><br />When asked how he got his firearm he said, “we made an agreement to purchase these guns and we ordered for them from Damboa, because that is where the gun smiths are.<br /><br />“I bought this gun for 8000 naira, the government promised to provide one for each of us, but the issue now is that we have to undergo screening before they make the final selection to ascertain those of us that are of clean character before they do so”, he explained.<br /><br />Source: dailyPost</span><div style="clear: both;">
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Boko Haram: Borno residents arm themselves against attack

Following the incessant attacks by the Boko Haram, and the capture of Damboa, GWOZA and recently Ngamboru Ngala a...

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Islamic State executes soldiers, takes hostages at Syria base: social media

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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="label" style="margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px;">1 OF 2. </span>An Islamic State militant uses a loud-hailer to announce to residents of Taqba city that Tabqa air base has fallen to Islamic State militants, in nearby Raqqa city August 24, 2014.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">CREDIT: REUTERS/STRINGER</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">(Reuters) - Islamic State militants have executed Syrian army soldiers and are holding a group hostage after capturing an air base in northeast <span class="mandelbrot_refrag"><a class="mandelbrot_refrag" data-ls-seen="1" href="http://www.reuters.com/places/syria?lc=int_mb_1001" style="cursor: pointer; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Syria</a></span> at the weekend, pictures posted on social media by supporters showed on Wednesday.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Islamic State, an offshoot of al Qaeda, stormed Tabqa air base near Raqqa city on Sunday after days of fighting with the army that cost more than 500 lives, according to monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tabqa was the army's last foothold in an area otherwise controlled by the militants, who have seized large areas of <span class="mandelbrot_refrag"><a class="mandelbrot_refrag" data-ls-seen="1" href="http://www.reuters.com/places/syria?lc=int_mb_1001" style="cursor: pointer; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Syria</a></span>and <span class="mandelbrot_refrag"><a class="mandelbrot_refrag" data-ls-seen="1" href="http://www.reuters.com/places/iraq?lc=int_mb_1001" style="cursor: pointer; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Iraq</a></span>. The United States has carried out air strikes on the group in Iraq and is considering its options in Syria.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In one picture posted online, a group of militants in balaclavas are seen gunning down at least seven kneeling men identified as army personnel. It was not possible to immediately confirm the authenticity of the images.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Other photos showed groups of eight to 10 soldiers taken hostage, some with face wounds and three identified as officers. The photos appeared to show at least two dozen hostages.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">One picture reportedly shows the body of a pilot who had appeared on Syrian television before the attack on the base explaining how the army could easily defend it. Others show militants holding up knives next to groups of captured men.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Syrian state television aired a report last week interviewing army personnel at the base and showing its defenses, just before Islamic State overran it.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">After the capture on Sunday, Syrian state television said the military was "regrouping" and that there was a "successful evacuation of the airport" as the army continued strikes on Islamic State in areas close to the base.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Observatory said 346 Islamic State fighters were killed and more than 170 members of the security forces had died in five days of fighting over the base, one of the deadliest clashes between the two groups since the start of the war.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The photos also showed the attack on the base, which used at least one tank. Other photos showed bodies and abandoned military hardware, such as a jet, warplane munitions and missiles, although it was not clear if any were operational.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"THEY SOLD YOU FOR CHEAP"</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Syrian newspapers have had very little coverage of the air base capture and the state news agency SANA and Syrian television have since focused on army operations against Islamic State elsewhere in the country.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Although it is not clear how widespread public anger in Syria might be about the fall of the airbase, some people supportive of the army expressed anger on social media.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Facebook page "Eagles of the Tabqa Military Airport, Men of Assad," reposted the photo showing the apparent execution of the soldiers and wrote "No comment. They sold you for cheap, God damn all traitors."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Thousands of people want to know the fate of their sons, and our only source is Islamic State," another user commented and made a sarcastic remark about the lack of coverage on SANA.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Some people on Twitter called for the resignation of the defense minister, with the hashtag "Minister of Death" in Arabic.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">One activist who is from the same Alawite sect as President Bashar al-Assad but opposes him said people in the Alawite community in the coastal town of Tartous felt scared and angry.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"But as always they also believe there's nothing they can do about it, that they have no choice but the status quo because the alternative is scarier," he said when contacted online.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"A lot of loyalists here are optimistic after Walid al-Moualem's speech. They're hoping the world will come to help Assad in his fight against terrorism," he added.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moualem, Syria's foreign minister, said on Monday that Damascus would cooperate in any international effort to fight Islamic State. But a White House spokesman said there was no plan to coordinate with Damascus on how to counter the threat.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">President <span class="mandelbrot_refrag"><a class="mandelbrot_refrag" data-ls-seen="1" href="http://www.reuters.com/people/barack-obama?lc=int_mb_1001" style="cursor: pointer; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Barack Obama</a></span> approved U.S. surveillance flights to gather intelligence on the extremist group after the release of a graphic video last week showing the beheading of U.S. journalist James Foley by an Islamic State fighter.</span></div>
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(Editing by <a data-ls-seen="1" href="http://blogs.reuters.com/search/journalist.php?edition=us&n=angus.macswan&" style="color: #006e97; cursor: pointer; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Angus MacSwan</a>)</div>
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Islamic State executes soldiers, takes hostages at Syria base: social media

1 OF 2. An Islamic State militant uses a loud-hailer to announce to residents of Taqba city that Tabqa air base...