SOUTH KOREAN DOCTORS KILLED IN NIGERIA BY BOKO HARAM
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Three foreign doctors have been killed in Nigeria, one of them beheaded, officials have said.
Their nationality remains unclear, with differing reports claiming they were either South Korean or Chinese.
The deaths on Saturday night of the doctors in Potiskum, a town in Yobe state, comes less than a week after gunmen killed at least nine women administering polio vaccines in Kano, the major city of Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north.
The two attacks raise new questions over whether the radical Islamic sect known as Boko Haram, targeted by Nigeria's police and military, has picked newer, softer targets in its guerrilla campaign of shootings and bombings across the nation.
The attackers reportedly targeted the doctors inside their home, an official at General Hospital in Potiskum, a government-run health facility, AP.
The doctors had no security guards at their residence and typically travelled around the city via three-wheel taxis without a police escort, said the official who insisted on anonymity.
By the time soldiers arrived at the house, they found the doctors' wives cowering in a flower bed outside their home, the official said. At the property, they found the corpses of the three men, all bearing what appeared to be machete wounds.
Two of the men had their throats slit, while the third was decapitated.
Yobe state police commissioner Sunusi Rufai confirmed the attack took place and said officers had begun an investigation. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Boko Haram, whose name means "western education is sacrilege," has been attacking government buildings and security forces over the last year-and-a-half. In 2012 alone, the group was blamed for killing at least 792 people, according to a count by AP, although more police officers and soldiers were sent to the north by Nigeria's weak central government.
The sect, which typically speaks to journalists in telephone conference calls at times of its choosing, could not be immediately reached for comment Sunday.
Their nationality remains unclear, with differing reports claiming they were either South Korean or Chinese.
The deaths on Saturday night of the doctors in Potiskum, a town in Yobe state, comes less than a week after gunmen killed at least nine women administering polio vaccines in Kano, the major city of Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north.
The two attacks raise new questions over whether the radical Islamic sect known as Boko Haram, targeted by Nigeria's police and military, has picked newer, softer targets in its guerrilla campaign of shootings and bombings across the nation.
The attackers reportedly targeted the doctors inside their home, an official at General Hospital in Potiskum, a government-run health facility, AP.
The doctors had no security guards at their residence and typically travelled around the city via three-wheel taxis without a police escort, said the official who insisted on anonymity.
By the time soldiers arrived at the house, they found the doctors' wives cowering in a flower bed outside their home, the official said. At the property, they found the corpses of the three men, all bearing what appeared to be machete wounds.
Two of the men had their throats slit, while the third was decapitated.
Yobe state police commissioner Sunusi Rufai confirmed the attack took place and said officers had begun an investigation. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Boko Haram, whose name means "western education is sacrilege," has been attacking government buildings and security forces over the last year-and-a-half. In 2012 alone, the group was blamed for killing at least 792 people, according to a count by AP, although more police officers and soldiers were sent to the north by Nigeria's weak central government.
The sect, which typically speaks to journalists in telephone conference calls at times of its choosing, could not be immediately reached for comment Sunday.
