Gunmen Attack Niger Prison - NYTimes.com NIAMEY, Niger - Three prisoners said to be associated with "terrorist groups" tried to break out of the central prison here in the heart of the capital on Saturday afternoon, officials said, drawing crowds into the streets in a nation anxious after two recent terrorist attacks. The prisoners were subdued after killing two guards, officials said. Niger's antiterrorist agency is looking into the episode, the state prosecutor said. Officials refused to say which terrorist group the prisoners were connected to. The justice minister, Marou Amadou, said, "We don't make those distinctions here - Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, Mujao." Boko Haram is an Islamist group in Nigeria, and Mujao is a regional offshoot of Al Qaeda. The episode brought the capital to a standstill, with nervous soldiers blocking off streets and crowds gathering in the prison neighborhood. Last month, suicide bombers killed at least 20 people in the towns of Agadez and Arlit. Both attacks were claimed by groups affiliated with Al Qaeda that vowed to carry out more assaults in Niger, an impoverished nation engaged in a regional struggle with Islamist militants. It has sent troops to Mali to fight against jihadists there, and it has agreed to host an American drone base whose principal mission is thought to be surveillance.