UPDATE 2-More than 30 Nigerian soldiers killed in militant attack -sources

(Adds Army statement)
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, April 26 (Reuters) - Militants overran
an army base in northeastern Nigeria, killing more than 30
soldiers before pulling back in the face of air strikes,
soldiers and a resident said.
The attackers were believed to belong to the regional
offshoot of Islamic State. They hit the base in Mainok town in
northeast Borno state on Sunday afternoon, three soldiers and
the resident told Reuters.
Rising insecurity across Nigeria has killed scores of
soldiers and civilians this year. Just over a month ago, about
30 soldiers were killed in four attacks by Islamist militants in
northeast Nigeria.
In a statement issued Monday evening, a military spokesman
said that one officer and six soldiers were killed and five were
wounded in the attack. The statement said troops had killed
scores of militants and were now in full control of the area.
The sources told Reuters that 33 soldiers were killed in
Sunday's attack. The militants wore military camouflage and
arrived in around 16 gun trucks and six mine-resistant military
vehicles, one of the soldiers said. After several hours, they
captured the base and soldiers called in airstrikes.
More soldiers were killed when militants ambushed
reinforcements sent to help, the soldier sources said. A
resident said the attackers also set ablaze the town's police
headquarters.
"I saw them while fighting with soldiers," resident Ba Umar
Abba Tuja told Reuters. "When the fighter jet started hovering
in the air, the (militants) fled to the community and hid in the
primary school."
Tuja said the militants left around midnight.
One soldier said air strikes had hit army troops due to
their similar dress as the militants. The Air Force, in a post
on Twitter, said it was investigating the incident.
Mainok is roughly 55 km (30 miles) from Maiduguri, the
capital of Borno state. An Islamist insurgency has plagued
northeast Nigeria for more than a decade, killing more than
30,000 people and displacing at least 2 million.
Islamic State West Africa Province, which broke away from
Boko Haram several years ago, now stages its own attacks on
soldiers and civilians in the region.