Multiple bombings and a gun battle involving suspected Boko Haram militants have reportedly left 26 people dead in the town of Biu in Nigeria's northeastern Borno State on Tuesday, witnesses said.
"I saw nine dead bodies put into an ambulance after the blast," Surajo Ali, an eyewitness and a member of a local vigilante group, told The Anadolu Agency.
"There was confusion everywhere, with soldiers shooting into the air," said Ali.
"People eventually rushed to the scene to rescue the victims; I saw nine dead bodies," he added.
A source at the town's General Hospital confirmed that a total of nine bodies had been brought to the hospital from the scene of the blast.
The explosions reportedly occurred after a three-wheel vehicle stopped suddenly near a military base on the outskirts of the town, which is located 187km from Maiduguri, provincial capital of Borno State.
Sources said that two men believed to be Boko Haram militants had rushed from the vehicle throwing explosives at several army checkpoints.
"The ensuing explosions claimed several lives, including those of the militants," local resident Auwalu Rahmanu told AA. "People are saying that between eight and nine people died."
He said the soldiers manning the checkpoints had fired at the vehicle after the militants began throwing explosives.
"They had been asked to stop for security checks, but they came down and threw explosives," Rahmanu added.
But a military source suggested that Boko Haram had only used the blasts to distract attention from a planned attack on the town itself.
The shooting, he said, appeared to be emanating from the town's outskirts only a few kilometers west of Biu, prompting the immediate deployment of soldiers to repel the attackers.
"Troops engaged the insurgents, killing 17 of the latter," the military source told AA.
Several militants were killed when their explosive-laden vehicle was struck by gunfire, he said, while other insurgents were shot dead by troops.
Last Thursday, a female suicide bomber blew herself up in a crowded local market in Biu, killing at least eight people and injuring 32 others.
Since 2009, Nigeria has battled a fierce Boko Haram insurgency that has ravaged the country's volatile northeast and left thousands dead.
A seemingly emboldened Boko Haram recently stepped up its militant activity, seizing several areas of Nigeria's Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states, where it has declared a self-styled "Islamic caliphate."
The Nigerian military announced on Monday that it had dislodged a number of Boko Haram fighters from Borno State's town of Monguno and its environs.
Monguno, which hosts a major military base, fell to militants on Jan. 25 while the army repelled a simultaneous attack on Maiduguri.
Last weekend, President Goodluck Jonathan said he expected the army to achieve appreciable successes in the restive north within six weeks so as to be able to provide the "security architecture" needed to hold planned general elections.
Nigeria recently postponed general elections – from Feb. 14 to March 28 – due to security concerns.
The country has recently been joined by three of its neighbors – Niger, Cameroon and Chad – in a joint counterterrorism campaign endorsed by the African Union and other regional bodies.
