The leader of an Islamist group blamed for days of violence in northern Nigeria has been shot and killed while in police custody in what human rights campaigners have condemned as murder.
Mohammed Yusuf, the head of Boko Haram, a Taliban-style group seeking to overthrow the government and impose sharia law, was killed while trying to escape, according to the governor of Borno state, Usman Ciroma.
"I saw his body at police headquarters," Ciroma said.
A video showing Yusuf confessing was shown to reporters. It then cut to images of his dead body, according to the BBC.
Yusuf's death comes amid concern about the tactics used to crush an uprising that has racked Nigeria.
Eric Guttschuss, a Nigeria researcher for Human Rights Watch, told Reuters: "The extrajudicial killing of Yusuf in police custody is a shocking example of the brazen contempt by the Nigerian police for the rule of law."
More than 100 rebels have been killed including unarmed captives alleged to be members of the radical Boko Haram, according to local rights groups. A bystander in Maiduguri, northern Nigeria, told the BBC he saw three men shot dead at close range while they were kneeling on the floor with their arms in the air.
The army insisted that it had used only minimal force, arguing that the alleged group members were armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.
Yusuf had initially escaped capture along with about 300 followers but was caught last night, according to the state police commissioner, Christopher Dega. He was found in a goat's pen at the home of his in-laws.
Shamaki Gad Peter, the director of the League for Human Rights, said rights workers saw up to 20 people dead after the start of the government offensive on Wednesday. There had been no weapons on the bodies, he said, and some people appeared to have been shot from behind, suggesting they were escaping.
Linda Dukwa, a resident of Maiduguri, said she and her family had been hiding in terror after police killed two men in front of her on Monday. "They were dressed in white robes," she said, indicating they were group members. "They were held by policemen. Then they shot their feet. After they fell on the ground [the police] shot their heads."
About 5,000 people have reportedly fled the city. But Ali Modu Sheriff, the governor of Borno state, of which Maiduguri is the capital, said the militants had been dislodged and urged people to go about their normal business. "The house-to-house search is still going on and anybody that harbours them will be dealt with according to the law," he said on state radio.
Earlier, an AP reporter watched soldiers shoot their way into the mosque in Maiduguri and rake those inside with machine gun fire. The reporter later counted about 50 bodies inside the building and 50 in the courtyard.
The militants, armed with hunting rifles, bows and arrows and scimitars, proved no match for government forces and some fled. Another five corpses lay inside a nearby house.
The army commander, Major General Saleh Maina, pointed to the body of a plump, bearded man, saying it was Boko Haram's vice-chairman, Bukar Shekau. "The mission has been accomplished," he said.
In the violence, which began on Sunday in Borno, Islamist militants attacked police stations, churches, prisons and government buildings. The violence quickly spread to three other states in mainly Muslim north Nigeria. Yesterday, men in Bauchi state and Maiduguri trimmed and even shaved off their beards in an effort to avoid being targets for the security forces.
Umaru Yar'Adua, Nigeria's president, said the group was preparing "holy war". Security agents had been watching the group for months and the order to attack came when the movement began gathering fighters from nearby states, he said.
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