YOLA, Nigeria—Soldiers and local vigilantes repelled a massive Boko Haram attack on the largest city of Nigeria’s northeast on Sunday, dealing a rare and significant defeat to the Islamic insurgency.
Several thousand Boko Haram fighters drove into the city of Maiduguri around dawn in armored cars, tanks, brand-new Toyota pickup trucks and motorbikes, officials and witnesses said. For hours, large explosions shook homes, mortars rained onto streets and gunshots crackled over the city of about two million people.
But the militants met considerable resistance. As they entered the city, hundreds of local hunters and vigilantes, armed with muskets and machetes, rushed to meet them, officials and militiamen said. The Nigerian army followed soon after, and by noon hundreds of Boko Haram fighters had died, according to a top security official and a senior member of the vigilante group. In the streets, furious residents filmed themselves mutilating the fighters’ bodies.
Sunday’s was the first confirmed attack in Nigeria in which either side used heavy mortars.
But it also confirms a growing pattern: Boko Haram, emboldened by years of kidnapping and killing sprees, has begun to take on targets beyond its size.
The group has handily swept through northeastern Nigeria since it moved its men out of Maiduguri in 2013. By the end of last year, the sect controlled a swath of Nigeria the size of Belgium.
This month, it declared war on Cameroon, Nigeria’s French-speaking neighbor. That move prompted Chad, which borders both Cameroon and Nigeria, to send its army after Boko Haram.
It may have marked a turning point. Last week, Chadian forces marched into Nigeria, capturing two small settlements along the countries’ shared border. Nigerian officials say that has freed their army up to chase Boko Haram into its mountain strongholds.
An expanded version of this report in available at WSJ.com