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Niger. — Nigerian troops battled militiamen in central Nigeria on Sunday after they destroyed several villages and killed scores of people last week, including six soldiers who had their eyes gouged out and tongues cut off, a military spokesman said.The group is not part of Islamist militant group Boko Haram, Special Task Force spokesman Captain Ikedichi Iweha told Reuters, but he did not give further details on their identity.

“Tongues were cut off, eyes were gouged out, bodies were decapitated,” Iweha said of the soldiers killed in the April 28 attack that saw several villages on the border of the central states of Plateau and Taraba razed to the ground.

“Yesterday, contact was made with the militia group and a fire-fight ensued. It is still going on,” he said.

Iweha said he could not disclose what triggered the initial attack until the operation was completed. — Reuters.