Baku-APA. At least 25 people were feared killed when the military in northeast Nigeria's Borno State engaged gunmen, suspected to be Boko Haram members, in an armed conflict, sources said in Maiduguri, the state capital, on Friday, APA reports quoting Xinhua.
The gunmen launched an attack on Ngauramari Village in Bama local government area of the northern state on Thursday, but the security operatives on guard repelled the attack, killing 25 of the insurgents during a gun duel and an airstrike, a military source told Xinhua.
"Three of the insurgents who came from their hideout in the Sambisa Games Forest were killed in a gunfight. But others were killed in airstrike by the military," the security source said.
Sule Abdullahi, a resident of the village returning from his farm, told a reporter that at least 22 bodies were found in bushes in the area on Friday morning.
According to him, the fleeing gunmen were killed while trying to cross a river in Bama-Firgi-Gwoza area.
"They were probably killed with the military's fighter jet," Abdullahi added.
The Boko Haram sect had coordinated deadly attacks in Bama- Firgi-Gwoza area of the state in the past, with the most recent being the killing of at least five people on Sunday when some gunmen ambushed road users on a federal highway.
Military spokesperson in the state, Mohammed Dole, confirmed Thursday's incident but said the 7 Division of the Nigerian Army was compiling its report on it before issuing a statement.
On Monday, the Nigerian Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki, launched a new strategy and change of tactics in fighting the Boko Haram insurgency in the attack-prone northeastern region, with a view to finally put an end to the reign of terror in the West African country.
Based in Borno State, the Boko Haram sect, which proves to be the biggest security threat in the West African country, had claimed responsibility for several attacks in which more than 1, 500 people, including women and children had been killed since 2009 when it launched violent attacks in northern Nigeria.
Irked by the carnage, the military had recently intensified its fight against the sect.
Last Monday, the military authorities confirmed that 24 insurgents died during an exchange of fire between security forces and suspected terrorists in a pre-dawn attack on Maiduguri.
Boko Haram seeks to enshrine the Islamic Sharia law into the constitution and declared war against Western education in Nigeria.
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