development, the Boko Haram’s leader Abubakar Shekau
said in a video which was obtained by AFP on Thursday “the whole
world” feared him, naming-checking President Obama, French
President Francois Hollade, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
and even the late Britidh premier Margaret Thatcher.
The Boko haram leader, Shekau singled out United States which
designated Boko Haram and its offshoot Ansaru known as JAMBS as
international terror groups on November 13, 2013.
“You are boasting you are going to join forces with Nigeria to crush us.
Bloody liars,” he said, in an apparent reference to a pledge by
Washington to support Abuja in the fight against the extremists.“You
couldn’t crush us when we were carrying sticks,” he said, adding: “By
Allah, we will never stop. Don’t think we will stop in Maiduguri.
“Tomorrow you will see us in America itself. Our operation is not
confined to Nigeria. It is for the whole world.”
Shekau’s claims about the international nature of Boko Haram stand at
odds with analysts’ general assessments that the group is largely
Nigeria-based.
But the United States has said the group and Ansaru have links the
wider Islamist jihadi network, in particular Al-Qaeda in the Islamic
Maghreb (AQIM), which has provided limited training and funding.
The US State Department in July offered a reward of up to $7
million for information leading to the arrest of Shekau.
The group leader also added that they were behind a daring raid on
military installations in Maiduguri earlier this month.“Allah the Almighty
has given us victory in the attack we launched inside Maiduguri (which
was) called Borno in ancient times,” said Abubakar Shekau in a 40-
minute clip.
Speaking in Arabic, Hausa and Kanuri, Shekau added: “We stormed the
city and fought them (and) Allah blessed us with lots of booty.”The
video, which was obtained through an intermediary, shows Shekau
dressed in military fatigues with a turban and Kalashnikov assault rifle
leaning on his chest.
He speaks for 19 minutes in all while the rest of the tape shows
images of burning buildings and aircraft said to be from the December
2 attack in Maiduguri, which is capital of Borno state.
It also shows a display of weapons the banned Islamist group says it
seized in the attack, including dozens of Kalashnikovs and rockets.
The authenticity of the tape could not be verified
independently. Gunmen who arrived on pick-up trucks besieged an
army and air force base, destroying aircraft, razing buildings and
setting shops and petrol stations ablaze, witnesses said.
The early morning raid was seen as significant because the Nigerian
military had previously claimed to have pushed the militants out of
urban centres and into more remote, rural areas.
Local people reported that the attackers were carrying AK-47
assault rifles and rocket propelled grenades in the assault, which
prompted the local authorities to impose a city-wide curfew.
In the Maiduguri raid, Nigeria’s military said 24 militants were killed and
two service personnel were wounded.
But Shekau said only seven fighters lost their lives — three in suicide
bombings, three were shot and one in “friendly fire”.At least two local
residents were also killed, people in the city said
Post a Comment