Boko Haram murders 50 as it pledges allegiance to the Islamic State

March 7, 2015 7:06 pm By Robert Spencer 25 Comments

For the caliphate, now as throughout history, might makes right. The longer the Islamic State lasts, the more loyalty it will win among Muslims. The Islamic State now has the allegiance of jihad groups in the Philippines, Libya, and Nigeria, as well as control of a large area of Iraq and Syria.
“Boko Haram declares allegiance to Isis,” The Guardian, March 7, 2015 (thanks to Kenneth):

Nigeria’s militant Islamist group Boko Haram has pledged allegiance to Islamic State, which rules a self-declared caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria, according to a video posted online on Saturday.
“We announce our allegiance to the Caliph … and will hear and obey in times of difficulty and prosperity,” read an English-language translation of the video broadcast in Arabic that purported to be from the Nigerian militant group. The pledge of allegiance was attributed to Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau.
The video script identified the Caliph as Ibrahim ibn Awad ibn Ibrahim al-Awad al-Qurashi, who is better known as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Islamic State and self-proclaimed caliph of the Muslim world. Baghdadi has already accepted pledges of allegiance from other jihadist groups in the Middle East, Afghanistan, Pakistan and north Africa.
Boko Haram has been waging a six-year military campaign to carve out an Islamic state in northern Nigeria.
Earlier on Saturday, four bomb blasts killed at least 50 people in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri in the worst attacks there since Boko Haram militants tried to seize the town in two major assaults earlier this year. Female suicide bombers believed to be acting for the group launched a series of attacks in markets, while another detonation was reported at a bus station.
In a fifth incident, a car bomb exploded at a military checkpoint 75km outside the city, wounding a soldier and two members of a civilian defence unit. The attacker in this incident had wanted to reach Maiduguri, a police officer at the scene said. In total, it is believed 58 people have been killed in the incidents and 143 wounded, but both figures were expected to rise….