April 19, 2007	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 01, 1428

KANO (Nigeria), April 18: Nigerian security forces killed 25 Islamic militants in an all-day battle on the outskirts of the northern city of Kano on Wednesday, authorities said. Troops surrounded the militants in the Panshekara district of the city early on Wednesday after they had burned a police station and killed 13 officers in an ambush a day earlier.

Sustained bursts of automatic gunfire were audible at a military checkpoint on the edge of the Panshekara district. A fighter plane swooped over the area repeatedly and a column of black smoke rose into the sky.

“The army has discovered the enclave of militants and we are pushing them back. We have killed many of the militants,” army Brigadier-General Kenneth Agbola Vigo said, adding that he expected to complete the operation by nightfall.

A senior police officer said 25 militants were killed.

“In total you have 25 militants killed: 22 in the battle zone and three shot by police outside the perimeter,” the officer said, asking not to be named.

The three in the second group were killed after they shot at police from a moving car. Officers recovered 10 million naira ($78,000) from the car, the officer added.

Thousands of residents fled from the area.

The police officer said some soldiers had also been killed in the battle, but there was no official confirmation.

The heavily armed militants burned down a police station on Tuesday, wounding two officers, and then ambushed and killed 13 police who came to investigate.

Residents said the militants were avenging the assassination of a hardline Muslim cleric at a mosque in Kano on Friday, which they blamed on the government.

The Secretary-General of Jama'atu Nasril Islam, Nigeria's largest Muslim organisation, said the militants, who use names such as “Taliban” and “Al Qaeda”, were not a recognised group.

“They use Islamic names to scare people and show their anger. Police should not be a target,” Abdulkadir Orire said.

Kano has seen several bouts of ethnic and religious bloodshed over the last few years, and tensions are running high in the city of 6 million because of flawed state elections held on Saturday and a presidential vote on April 21.

It was not clear if the latest violence was election-related.

The attack was the second on a police station in northern Nigeria's biggest city in a week. Attackers killed a divisional police officer in the Sharada district last week but the motive for that incident was not clear.

Kano is one of 12 northern Nigerian states which introduced sharia law in 2000. The move by state governors alienated Christian minorities and sparked violence.

Southern Nigeria is predominantly Christian.—Reuters