3 North Korean Doctors Killed in Nigeria Attack

Assailants in northeastern Nigeria killed three North Korean doctors, beheading one of them, in the latest attack on health workers in a nation under assault by Boko Haram, officials said today. The deaths last night of the doctors in Potiskum comes after gunmen killed at least nine women administering polio vaccines in Kano, the major city of Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north. The attacks raise new questions over whether the extremist sect has picked a new soft target in its guerrilla campaign across the nation.

The attackers apparently struck at the North Korean doctors inside their home, which had no security. By the time soldiers arrived at the house, they found the doctors' wives cowering in a flower bed outside their home. Two of the men had their throats slit in what appeared to be machete wounds. Attackers beheaded the other doctor. There are more than a dozen other North Korean doctors posted to the state. All will receive immediate security protection. No one claimed responsibility for the attack, though suspicion fell on the Boko Haram sect. The killings of the doctors follow on the heels of Friday's murders of polio vaccinators in Kano. (More Nigeria stories.)