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Download Boko Haram militants dressed as soldiers slaughtered at least 200 civilians in three communities in northeastern Nigeria, in massacres the military did nothing to stop despitewarnings that an attack was imminent, witnesses said on Thursday. A community leader who witnessed the killings on Monday said residents of the Gwoza local government district in Borno state had pleaded for the military to send soldiers to protect the area after they heard that militants were about to attack, but help didn't arrive. It took a few days for survivors to get word of the massacres to Maiduguri, the provincial capital, because travel on the roads is extremely dangerous and phone connections are poor or nonexistent. The slaughter was confirmed by Mohammed Ali Ndume, a senator representing Borno and whose hometown is Gwoza, and by a top security official in Maiduguri who insisted on anonymity because he isn't allowed to speak to the media. Militants of Boko Haram, which wants to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria, have been taking over villages in the northeast, killing and terrorizing civilians and political leaders. The Islamist fighters are making a comeback from a year-long military offensive aimed at crushing them. Thousands of people have been killed in the five-year-old insurgency - more than 2,000 so far this year - and an estimated 750,000 Nigerians have been driven from their homes. Nigeria's military has insisted that it has the extremists on the run, making use of a big influx of troops and a year-old state of emergency in three states, which gives it the power to detain suspects, take over buildings and lock down any area. | 
