Loading ...Yaoundé (AFP) – The Cameroon army claimed Wednesday to have dealt a major blow to Nigeria’s Boko Haram Islamists, killing around 100 fighters and freeing 900 hostages in a three-day operation last week.
The claim, which could not be independently confirmed, comes on the heels of twin suicide attacks the previous day in the far north of Cameroon, an area repeatedly targeted by the jihadists.
At least six people died in the attacks, according to a new toll.
“A special clean-up operation from November 26 to 28” against Boko Haram in the border area with Nigeria “neutralised more than 100 jihadists”, Defence Minister Joseph Beti Assomo said in a statement broadcast on national radio.
The sweep enabled troops “to release almost 900 hostages, seize large supplies of arms and munitions as well as black-and-white Islamic State flags”, the statement added, without providing details on the identities of those freed.
Boko Haram swore allegiance to IS in March 2015.
The minister attributed the success of the raid to cooperation between Cameroon security forces, a new multinational force being set up to fight Boko Haram and Nigeria’s army.
No independent confirmation of the statement was immediately available from the region, which is unaccessible to the media.
Some security sources reached by telephone confirmed that the raid took place but were unable to confirm the figures released in the government statement.
http://news.yahoo.com/cameroon-army-kills-100-boko-haram-fighters-frees-001313100.html