The Nigerian military has announced that it has killed a top
Boko Haram commander in a gunfight in Maiduguri. According to
spokesman Sagir Musa, a militant leader by the name of
Ibn Saleh Ibrahim was killed alongside several other fighters
in a military operation involving helicopters and armoured personnel carriers on
16 November. There were no military casualties.
Ibrahim was reportedly responsible for the assassination of
Gen. Mamman Shuwa, a hero of the civil war who was gunned down at his house in
Maiduguri on 2 November (Nigeria P&S – 09.11.12). The military operation
against Ibrahim's Boko Haram fighters was reportedly continuing.
Meanwhile, the US government has expressed its concern over the
alleged detentions, mistreatment and killings of Boko Haram suspects by the
security forces. A senior State Department official expressed concern over the
allegations, contained in a major Human Rights Watch report in October, in a
meeting with Foreign Minister Olugbenga Ashiru.
Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Democracy, Human
Rights and Labour, Michael Posner, said that terrorism was a
serious and complex challenge but that the struggle against Boko Haram could not
be won by force alone.
For more news and expert
analysis about Nigeria, please see Nigeria Focus and Nigeria
Politics & Security.
© 2012 Menas Associates
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