Government planes attacked
Boko Haram fighters in the village of Taye, inside the Sambisa forest in Borno
State.
The Nigerian air force has
claimed to have killed at least three senior commanders of Boko Haram in a
series of airstrikes.
It claims the group's
elusive leader, who has a bounty on his head, has been fatally wounded in the
raids which were launched on Friday.
"Their leader, so
called 'Abubakar Shekau', is believed to be fatally wounded on his
shoulders," army spokesman Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman said in a
statement.
He confirmed the deaths of
three Boko Haram commanders - Abubakar Mubi, Malam Nuhu and Malam Hamman - and
said several others were wounded in the attack on the Islamist group's
northeastern forest stronghold.
The military has claimed to
have killed the Boko Haram leader in the past, only to have a man purporting to
be him appear later, apparently unharmed, ridiculing suggestions of his death
in video statements.
There was no immediate
reaction from the terror organisation.
Nigerian forces, with the
support of regional troops, have recently recaptured swathes of territory lost
to the jihadists.
The air raid claim comes
ahead of US Secretary of State John Kerry's visit to the country this week, for
talks likely to focus on the challenges of tackling Boko Haram.
The group, seeking to
impose strict Islamic law in the country's mainly-Muslim north, has killed some
20,000 people and displaced as many as 2.6 million others who have been forced
to flee their homes since 2009.
Why is Shekau still alive?
ReplyDelete