At least 100 villagers and soldiers were killed in central Burkina Faso during a weekend attack on a village by al-Qaida-linked jihadis, according to videos of the violence analyzed by a regional specialist, who described the assault as one of the deadliest this year in the conflict-battered West African nation.

Villagers in the Barsalogho commune, which is 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the capital city, were forcibly helping security forces dig up trenches to protect security outposts and villages on Saturday when fighters with the al-Qaida-linked JNIM group invaded the area and opened fire on them, said Wassim Nasr, a Sahel specialist and senior research fellow at the Soufan Center security think tank.

Al-Qaida claimed responsibility for the attack on Sunday, saying in a statement that it gained “total control over a militia position” in Barsalogho, in Kaya, a strategic town where security forces have used to fight off jihadis that have tried to close in on the capital, Ouagadougou.

At least 100 bodies were counted in videos of the attack, Nasr said. The Associated Press could not independently verify the count but reviewed videos that appeared to be from the scene, showing bodies piled beside the trenches and shovels amid gunshots.