{{A military strike on a Boko Haram camp in Nigeria’s restive northeast last week left about 150 Islamists and 16 soldiers dead, the army said Wednesday, amid reports of dozens of troops killed.}}
The army’s claim of a major offensive against the Islamist insurgents on September 12 came after local media reported that Boko Haram had ambushed a group of soldiers in the same area, killing 40 and leaving dozens of others missing.
Military officials were not available to comment on the reported Boko Haram ambush, speaking only about the purported military strike.
Details of last week’s military operation had not been previously made public.
“It was a highly fortified insurgent camp with heavy weapons in (northeastern) Borno State,” army spokesman Ibrahim Attahiru said, adding that the camp was in the Kasiya forest.
“The army raided the camp on September 12. Some 150 Boko Haram terrorists were killed, while the military lost 16 soldiers. Nine soldiers are still missing,” he told AFP.
The forest where the alleged raid occurred is some 70 kilometres (43 miles) northeast of Borno’s capital Maiduguri, the city where Boko Haram was founded more than a decade ago.
The area surrounding Kasiya had acquired a reputation for armed robbery.
There has been speculation that Boko Haram had strengthened its presence in the remote area in recent months, several people familiar with the region told media.
Borno was placed under a state of emergency in mid-May, when the military shut down the mobile phone network to block Islamists from coordinating attacks amid an operation aimed at crushing the insurgency.
With the communication network switched off, details of attacks have been slow to emerge and difficult to verify.
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