Boko Haram Attack Kills 17 in Nigeria

Boko Haram militants attacked a village in restive northern Nigeria, killing 17 people and setting houses and cars alight, the local government said Sunday.

Among the dead were Muslim worshipers shot as they prayed in the village mosque, said Abdullahi Bego, spokesman for the governor of the troubled state of Yobe.

"The gunmen are Boko Haram people, it was the same pattern of attacks they are known for," he told Agence France Presse.

"They also burnt several houses and many vehicles before fleeing," he said.

Yobe and neighboring Borno states are in the grip of an almost five-year-old Boko Haram insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives.

The violent Islamist group, whose name means "Western education is sinful" in the Hausa language, has attacked isolated villages, schools and churches as well as military bases in a brutal campaign.

Confronted with the violent insurrection, Nigerian troops launched a major crackdown in May 2013 against Boko Haram, which wants to create a separate hardline Islamic state in northern Nigeria.

The conflict has forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee in fear either to other Nigerian states or neighboring countries.