700 Killed in Nigeria

Seven hundred people were killed in the northern city of Maiduguri, Nigeria, a military official from the African country said Saturday. Fighting broke out between police and a radical Islamist sect, which was previously believed to have claimed 300 lives. The total number of deaths in the country is unknown. Mass burials have begun to remove the bodies from the bloody streets of the Borno state capital. Violence has spread throughout the region since last Sunday when the sect, Boko Haram, which means "Western education is sacrilege," began to attack police stations, churches, and government buildings. The group aims to implement strict Islamic Shariah law in Nigeria. Its leader, Mohammed Yusuf, was killed on Thursday, and the details of his death remain unclear.