Nigerian Army kills 20 insurgents

Abuja: The Nigerian Army has said its troops killed 20 Boko Haram suspects in a raid on the insurgents` camp in northeastern Borno state, and destroyed vehicles and 50 motorcycles.

The offensive came in response to a series of attacks by the insurgents on unarmed civilians around the Nigeria-Cameroon-Niger border communities since last week, Xinhua reported Saturday. Army authorities said they subsequently deployed troops in the area to flush out the Boko Haram men in a fierce offensive targeted against the sect`s camp at Bita town, a stronghold of Boko Haram insurgents from where they launched attacks on isolated villages and motorists along the road to Gwoza and Damboa. Lt. Col. Muhammad Dole, the spokesman of the 7 Division of the Nigerian Army, said that a soldier died in the encounter and three others were wounded. He said troops of the 7 Division of the Nigerian Army, supported by the air force, launched an offensive operation along Gwoza-Bita Damboa road, and aggressively pursued the fleeing insurgents in the general areas of Bita and Sambisa forest, where they were flushed out. Founded in 2001, Boko Haram is an Islamic militant organisation operating in northeastern Nigeria, north of Cameroon and Niger. The sect poses the biggest security threat in the country. Hundreds of people have been killed since it launched the insurgency in 2009.