“The troops killed several of them including two senior commanders that led the attack”, Usman said in an e-mailed statement.
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Abubakar Shekau sustained serious injuries when the air force raided a Boko Haram camp in the north-eastern village of Taye, situated in the Sambisa forest of Borno State, army spokesman Sani Usman said in a statement.
Prior to the Boko Haram leader’s arrest, the secret police had on July 8 arrested a notorious Boko Haram fighter and three of his accomplices while perfecting arrangements for major coordinated attacks on selected locations in the northwestern Kaduna state, the statement added.
The Nigerian claim comes as John Kerry, the U.S. secretary of state, visits the country for talks expected to focus on the fight against Boko Haram, which launched an armed campaign in 2009. While their leader, so-called ‘Abubakar Shekau, ‘ is believed to be fatally wounded on his shoulders. But during that time, Boko Haram has still waged attacks that have killed thousands and kidnapped hundreds.
The leader of the Boko Haram group is believed to be fatally wounded in an air strike carried out by the Nigerian military in the country’s northeast, according to official sources. The militant Islamist group had no immediate response to Tuesday’s announcement by the military.
The previous day, in northern Zamfara State, eight people were burned to death by a mob after a Muslim man tried to help a Christian accused of blasphemy. Dozens escaped but 218 remain missing. A month later, Shekau released a video saying: “Here I am, alive”. In Nigeria’s northeastern Borno state, 49,000 children “will die if they do not receive treatment”, the agency, known as UNICEF, said in a report. Shekau has been hunted for years since Boko Haram, under his leadership, notably became more violent, killing over 20,000 people.
Boko Haram has been fighting regional governments for years as it aims to create its own Islamic state in Africa.
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Abubakar Shekau, also known by the alias Darul Akeem wa Zamunda Tawheed, or Darul Tawheed, served as deputy leader to Boko Haram’s founder Mohammed Yusuf, until Yusuf was executed in 2009.
