At least 39 dead in Monday insurgent attack in north Nigeria

DAMATURU, Nigeria (REUTERS) - A suspected Boko Haram insurgent attack on a state capital in north-east Nigeria on Monday killed at least 39 people, a hospital morgue source said on Tuesday, giving the first reported death toll from the violence.

The source said 33 of the dead were policemen and six were soldiers, while 20 militants also died in their raid on Damaturu, the capital of Yobe state.

The death toll was expected to rise with more corpses arriving on Tuesday, the source said.

A local security source said the insurgents had taken many of their dead away, filling four pick-up trucks with bodies.

Nigeria's military had to use ground and air forces to repulse the insurgents from the city following their dawn raid.

A separate bomb attack in the Borno state capital Maiduguri, also on Monday, killed at least five people.

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