Nigerian soldiers killed two high ranking officials that belong to the Islamist sect , Boko Haram, yesterday(REUTERS)
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Soldiers manning a checkpoint in northern Nigeria shot to death two ranking members of a radical Islamist sect responsible for hundreds of killings this year alone, a military official said yesterday.
The dead included the spokesperson for the sect known as Boko Haram, as well as a commander who operates in Kogi state south of Nigeria's capital, the official said. The killings could prove to be a boon to Nigeria's security forces, which remain largely unable to stop guerrilla attacks and bombings by the sect, which killed another 13 people this weekend alone, authorities said.
The shooting occurred yesterday morning in Mariri, a town to the southeast of Kano, the largest city in Nigeria's Muslim north. There, soldiers stopped a vehicle with the sect spokesperson, the commander, the spokesperson's wife and their children, the official said. It is unclear what happened next, though the official said soldiers shot dead both the commander and the spokeserson. The wife and children remain in military custody, the official said.
The wife told soldiers the men had accompanied her to Kano where she sought medical help, the official said.
Also yesterday, a Nigerian army soldier and 13 suspected Boko Haram members were killed in the northeastern city of Maiduguri.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity as the information was not
to be made immediately public yesterday. Lt. Iweha Ikedichi, a military
spokesperson in the region, later told journalists that soldiers had only
killed one man, the Boko Haram spokesperson. However, the official who
spoke to The Associated Press had been at the checkpoint and offered
further details about the scene.
Government officials may be hesitating as they previously claimed in
February to have arrested the sect's spokesperson, who uses the nom de
guerre Abul Qaqa when speaking to journalists. Only days afterward, a
spokesperson using the same name told journalists, "We are waxing stronger
by the day despite the arrest of some of our top members." The sect also
threatened journalists who previously reported on the government's
claim without mentioning Boko Haram's denial.
Also yesterday, a Nigerian army soldier and 13 suspected Boko Haram
members were killed in the northeastern city of Maiduguri. An explosive
was thrown at a military vehicle, killing one soldier and injuring three
others, said a security source who spoke on condition of anonymity. A
shootout then occurred in which the 13 suspected Boko Haram members were
killed.
The sect, whose name means "Western education is sacrilege" in the Hausa
language of Nigeria's north, has been waging an increasingly bloody
fight against the nation's government. More than 680 people have died in
drive-by killings and bombings blamed on Boko Haram this year alone,
according to a count by The Associated Press. The sect has demanded the
release of all its captive members and has called for strict Shariah law
to be implemented across the entire country.
The killing of members of the sect's senior leadership comes as the
group recently changed some of its tactics and attacked more than 30
mobile phone towers throughout northern Nigeria, disrupting
communications in a nation reliant on cellular phones.
Meanwhile, Abubakar Shekau, the leader of the sect who occasionally
appears in videos posted to the Internet, remains at large. Security
officials and experts believe he and other Boko Haram members are hiding
somewhere in the neighboring countries of Cameroon, Chad or Niger.
The U.S. in June placed financial sanctions on Shekau and two other
high-ranking Boko Haram members, though it remains unclear whether the
group has any assets in America or use banks there. American officials
also have said Boko Haram has loose ties with al-Qaida in the Islamic
Maghreb and the Somali terrorist organization al-Shabab. The group's
attacks also raised ethnic and religious tensions in Nigeria, a nation
of more than 160 million people largely split between a Christian south
and a Muslim north.
This weekend, killings blamed on Boko Haram continued. In Kano, police
said a security agent and three of his family members were shot dead
Sunday by sect members. Gunmen attacked a suburb Sunday on the outskirts
of Bauchi, killing eight people who were playing poker, state police
commissioner Muhammad Ladan said. Assailants also shot dead a respected
moderate Muslim cleric in Maiduguri, the northeastern city that's the
sect's spiritual home, authorities said.
