Hostage killings a new, dangerous turn for Nigeria

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March 11, 2013

Hostage killings a new, dangerous turn for Nigeria

Anonymous The Eagle-Tribune The Eagle Tribune Mon Mar 11, 2013, 01:05 AM EDT

KANO, Nigeria (AP) — Radical Islamic fighters killed seven foreign hostages in Nigeria, European diplomats said yesterday, making it the worst such kidnapping violence in decades for a country beset by extremist guerrilla attacks.

Nigeria’s police, military, domestic spy service and presidency remained silent over the killings of the construction company workers, kidnapped Feb. 16 from northern Bauchi state. The government’s silence only led to more questions about the nation’s continued inability to halt attacks that have seen hundreds killed in shootings, church bombings and an attack on the United Nations.

The latest victims were four Lebanese and one citizen apiece from Britain, Greece and Italy.

Britain and Italy said all seven of those taken from the Setraco construction company compound had died at the hands of Ansaru, a previously little-known splinter group of the Islamic sect Boko Haram. Greece also confirmed one of its citizens was killed, while Lebanese authorities didn’t immediately comment.

“It’s an atrocious act of terrorism, against which the Italian government expresses its firmest condemnation, and which has no explanation,” a statement from Italy’s foreign ministry read. Italy also denied a claim by Ansaru that the hostages were killed before or during a military operation by Nigerian and British forces, saying there was “no military intervention aimed at freeing the hostages.”

Italian Premier Mario Monti identified the slain Italian hostage as Silvano Trevisan and promised Rome would use “every effort” to stop the killers. British Foreign Secretary William Hague called the killings “an act of cold-blooded murder” and identified the U.K. victim as Brendan Vaughan.

A statement from Greece’s foreign ministry said authorities had already informed the hostage’s family. “We note that the terrorists never communicated or formulated demands to release the hostages,” the statement read, which also denied any military raid took place.

Ansaru issued a short statement Saturday saying its fighters kidnapped the foreigners from the construction company’s camp at Jama’are, a town 125 miles north of Bauchi, the capital of Bauchi state. In the attack, gunmen first assaulted a local prison and burned police trucks, authorities said. Then the attackers blew up a back fence at the construction company’s compound and took over, killing a guard in the process, witnesses and police said.

Local officials in Nigeria initially identified one of the hostages as a Filipino, something the Philippines government later denied.

The gunmen appeared to be organized and knew who they wanted to target, leaving the Nigerian household staff at the residence unharmed, while quickly abducting the foreigners, a witness said.

In an online statement Saturday claiming the killings, Ansaru said it killed the hostages in part because of local Nigerian journalists reporting on the arrival of British military aircraft to Bauchi. However, Ansaru’s statement cited local news articles that instead said the airplanes were spotted at the international airport in Abuja, the nation’s central capital 180 miles southwest.

The U.K. Defense Ministry said yesterday the planes it flew to Abuja ferried Nigerian troops and equipment to Bamako, Mali. Nigerian soldiers have been sent to Mali to help French forces and Malian troops battle Islamic extremists there. The British military said it also transported Ghanaian soldiers to Mali the same way.

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