Boko
Haram insurgents have attacked a military airbase in north-eastern Nigeria,
destroying two helicopters, the authorities say.
Eyewitnesses
say hundreds of militants attacked several areas of the city of Maiduguri,
starting early on Monday.
A
24-hour curfew has been imposed in Maiduguri. Its civilian airport was also
briefly closed.
A
BBC correspondent says the large-scale, co-ordinated attack is a big setback
for the Nigerian military.
Thousands
of people have been killed since 2009, when Boko Haram launched its campaign to
install Islamic law.
In
May, a state of emergency was declared in Borno state, of which Maiduguri is
the capital, as well as two neighbouring states, while there has been a massive
military deployment to the worst-affected areas.
'Crying
and wailing'
Ministry
of Defence spokesman Brig Gen Chris Olukolade said in a statement that two
helicopters and three decommissioned military aircraft had been
"incapacitated" during the attack which had been repelled.
He
said some army bases had also been targeted, while 24 insurgents had been
killed and two soldiers wounded.
Local
residents told the AFP news agency that hundreds of heavily armed Islamist
gunmen besieged the air force and army bases, razing buildings and setting shops
and petrol stations ablaze.
"I
saw two air force helicopters burnt," a local official told AFP.
Bomb
and gun attacks were carried out in Maiduguri, an AFP reporter in the city
said.
A
resident said: "We heard women and children in the barracks crying and
wailing. At the gate, I saw some vehicles destroyed and the checkpoint there in
shreds."
There
are reports of military checkpoints being attacked in different parts of the
city.
Some
eyewitnesses told the AP news agency they had seen bodies with their throats
slit.
Others
said several vehicles had been driven out of the air base carrying the bodies
of victims.
Government
and military officials said scores of people may be dead, AP reported.
A
spokesman for the Nigerian civil aviation authority told the BBC that the
airport had not been attacked, while Brig Gen Olukolade said flights had now
resumed.
Recent
Boko Haram attacks have been in more rural areas, and it had appeared as though
the military operation had made Maiduguri city far safer, says the BBC Nigeria
correspondent Will Ross.
Mobile
phone links to the city have been cut since May, when the state of emergency
was declared.
Boko
Haram was founded in Maiduguri in 2002 and was also the scene of its first
uprising, in 2009.
Source: BBC
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