{{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.}}<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Military officials were not available to comment on the reported Boko Haram ambush, speaking only about the purported military strike.<\/p>\n
Details of last week’s military operation had not been previously made public.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The area surrounding Kasiya had acquired a reputation for armed robbery.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
With the communication network switched off, details of attacks have been slow to emerge and difficult to verify.<\/p>\n
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