ISWAP claims killing 15 soldiers on Sallah day

Islamic State has claimed its fighters killed 15 Nigeria soldiers during a clash in Ghoubio, Borno state, in northeast Nigeria.

The terror group said it attacked the Nigerian troops on Sunday leaving about 15 soldiers dead, after which the insurgents seized five vehicles and different weapons and ammunition.

The Nigerian military has not yet commented on the attack.

July marked 10 years since the Islamist insurgency began, and the series of attacks in Borno state came on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the death in police custody of Boko Haram founder Muhammad Yusuf.

The Nigerian government has always insisted that Boko Haram was defeated although, success has been difficult to measure.

In July, the Nigerian government again claimed that the “Boko Haram terrorism has been degraded and defeated.”

“Real Boko Haram we know is defeated,” President Muhammadu Buhari’s spokesman Garba Shehu said in a statement.

Curiously, the assertion came three days after 65 people were killed at a funeral by the extremists in a revenge attack.

More than 30,000 people have been killed in northeast Nigeria since 2009 when Boko Haram insurgency started. It has also ocassioned a humanitarian crisis with more than a million people displaced.

-The Guardian