MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Heavy gunfire raged for two hours in Nigeria's northeastern city of Maiduguri on Friday morning, residents said, and explosions were heard at the Giwa barracks, where the army has detained hundreds of Islamist insurgent suspects.
Al Qaeda-linked Boko Haram has killed thousands in an almost five-year-long insurgency aimed at carving out an Islamic state in the religiously diverse country of about 170 million people.
