many as six soldiers were wounded during the protest after thousands of members of the sect overran a police checkpoint and blocked traffic along a highwaysoldiers had arrived to assist the police a news release said and were met with protesters who threw canisters of fuel large stones catapults with dangerous objects and other dangerous itemsthe military posted photos of six slingshots and one pocketknife on its facebook page as evidencethey wanted to take over the checkpoint with their weapons mr agim said they knew it was there we responded to themimagecreditpaul carstenreutersibrahim musa a spokesman for the shiite group said that on monday security forces refused to let protesters who numbered about 1000 pass the checkpoint as they marched toward their destination he said 13 protesters were killed during two other marches this week one before and one after mondays deadly marchrocks are not equal to bullets he said the use of force is disproportionate i dont think president trump is a good example even in america many are critical of him i am surprised that the army will use trump as a role modelthere was no immediate comment from the white house on the nigerian armys posting but asked on friday about whether he condoned american soldiers firing on migrants in a mexico caravan if they attempted to cross the united states border mr trump said they wont have to fire what i dont want is i dont want these people throwing rocksa state department official in washington responding to the nigerian shootings said in a statement that the united states supports regional efforts to fight terrorism and protect civilians employing our full tool kit including diplomacy foreign assistance senior military engagement and security assistancethe statement was a reiteration of a twitter posting on thursday by tibor nagy assistant secretary for the state departments bureau of african affairs in which he called for restraint on both sides and an investigation to hold all lawbreakers accountablethere was a conspicuous lack of comment on both the killings and the nigerian armys response from president buhari and atitku abubakar his main challenger in elections scheduled for next februarytheir silence may partly reflect the antipathy toward the islamic movement of nigeria in their own bases of supportthere were also socialmedia expressions of support for the militarys responseif the military in my country doesnt shoot back at a group of people who chose to block the highway and throw rocks at them how would i trust them if they had to go toetotoe with a foreign enemy wrote a senior aide to the governor of kogi state in central nigeria please use bullets to cure those fanatics of their madnessdespite its history of massacring innocent civilians in the war with the islamist extremist group boko haram detaining innocent citizens and raping women and girls fleeing wartorn communities the nigerian military has been the recipient of warplane sales and other gear from the united states american officials are particularly worried about a branch of