Boko Haram Slaughters Praying Victims

Boko Haram, newly affiliated with the Islamic State, has unleashed a series of gruesome terror attacks in Nigeria this week. In the latest, gunmen burst into mosques and homes in the town of Kukawa yesterday and killed 97 people who were praying or otherwise marking the holy month of Ramadan, say government officials. The previous night, gunmen in the village of Mussaram ordered males and females to separate and then opened fire on the men and boys, killing about 50 and seriously injuring another 17.

“They spared nobody," one witness to the slaughter in Kukawa tells AFP. "In fact, while some of the terrorists waited and set most of the corpses on fire, others proceeded to houses and shot indiscriminately at women who were preparing food." Boko Haram has made a point to go after mosques because it considers their Islamic teaching not sufficiently strict. (More Boko Haram stories.)