Suspected Boko Haram militants carried out bloody attacks in two state capitals in the northeast, with a deadly double bombing at a crowded market and an attack on a police base.  It’s the part of Nigeria where the terrorists have been trying to carve out their own state. 

Boko Haram attacked the police facility in Damaturu before dawn, burning down what remained of a police facility that was attacked and damaged a year ago.

Meanwhile, rescue workers were evacuating the dead and wounded from the Monday Market in Maiduguri. 

“I can’t say how many were killed or injured but I have seen very many victims dripping with blood, others with parts of their bodies dismembered by the blasts,” said trader Bala Dauda Dauda said by telephone.

Two female suicide bombers set off devices as people shopped for vegetables.  It’s exactly the same modus operandi that Boko Haram used in a suicide bombing on the same market one week earlier.  Monday’s attack was much less deadly, as six people were killed and 32 were wounded.  Last week, the bombers killed 78 people.

When the Nigerian military arrived on the scene, they were shouted down by angry youths and told to leave.  Nigerians are increasingly critical of the military for its inability or unwillingness to confront the Islamist militants.  And now the US is getting fed up with the government of President Goodluck Jonathan.

“At the request of the Nigerian government, the United States will discontinue its training of a Nigerian Army battalion,” read a statement from the US Embassy in Abuja.

The US already conducted two anti-terror training sessions, and the third session had been planned “with the intent of developing the battalion into a unit with advanced infantry skills”.  But Nigeria called it off, apparently upset that the US isn’t delivering “lethal” weapons that would deliver “a killer punch” to the militants, including attack helicopters. 

The Obama administration is clearly worried about how those weapons would be used, with the State Department noting there were “ongoing concerns” about the Nigerian military’s human rights record and its ability to protect civilians during operations.