{"id":31780,"date":"2017-01-13T09:51:14","date_gmt":"2017-01-13T09:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/16-bodies-found-after-boko-haram-attack-on\/"},"modified":"2017-01-13T09:51:11","modified_gmt":"2017-01-13T09:51:11","slug":"16-bodies-found-after-boko-haram-attack-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/16-bodies-found-after-boko-haram-attack-on\/","title":{"rendered":"16 bodies found after Boko Haram attack on soldiers: military"},"content":{"rendered":"

{The bodies of 16 soldiers have been recovered in northeast Nigeria, nearly three months after an attack on a coalition force claimed by Boko Haram Islamists, the military has said.}<\/p>\n

The Islamic State group affiliate announced on October 17 last year it had “stormed a joint position of the armies of Nigeria and Niger” in Gashagar, Borno state, killing 20 soldiers.<\/p>\n

Local community leaders in the border area confirmed the attack at the time, saying the soldiers were caught unawares and suffered “huge casualties”, without specifying how many.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Nigerian Army Major General Leo Irabor said the missing troops were found by soldiers and vigilantes on January 5 after clearing villages between Damasak and Gashagar.<\/p>\n

“At Asagar village, our troops encountered and dislodged some BHT (Boko Haram terrorists) elements,” Irabor, who commands the counter-insurgency operation, told reporters.<\/p>\n

“Subsequently, the troops recovered corpses of one officer and 15 soldiers earlier declared missing in action during their dislodgment from Gashagar on October 16, 2016.”<\/p>\n

The bodies were discovered in a river and had since been buried with full honours, he told a news conference in Maiduguri, the biggest city in the region.<\/p>\n

Confirmation of military casualties has been rare throughout the conflict in the remote region, as have claims and counter-claims from both sides.<\/p>\n

But Nigeria’s military has begun regular briefings to give updates on the counter-insurgency, particularly as it has gained the upper hand in the fighting.<\/p>\n

Troops from Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon make up a regional force battling the insurgents, who have also launched cross-border attacks around the Lake Chad area.<\/p>\n

Irabor on Wednesday described Boko Haram as “in disarray and… desperate”, yet attacks continue, underlining the threat from the group.<\/p>\n

Last weekend, at least five soldiers were killed at a military base in Buni Yadi, Yobe state, while five suicide bombers killed themselves and three others in Maiduguri.<\/p>\n

\"Nigerien<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{The bodies of 16 soldiers have been recovered in northeast Nigeria, nearly three months after an attack on a coalition force claimed by Boko Haram Islamists, the military has said.} The Islamic State group affiliate announced on October 17 last year it had “stormed a joint position of the armies of Nigeria and Niger” in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[228],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-31780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-afp"],"bylines":[{"id":228,"name":"AFP","slug":"afp","description":"Agence France-Presse is an international news agency headquartered in Paris. It is the oldest news agency in the world and one of the largest. ","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":71}],"contributors":[{"id":228,"name":"AFP","slug":"afp","description":"Agence France-Presse is an international news agency headquartered in Paris. It is the oldest news agency in the world and one of the largest. ","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":71}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31780\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31780"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=31780"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=31780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}