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| JTF SPOKESMAN, SAGIR MUSA |
The Boko Haram sect denied on Monday that 20 of its fighters had been killed in a raid by the joint task force in Maiduguri the day before, saying all those killed were civilians.
A security officer said the JTF, tipped off about a Boko Haram meeting on Sunday, had been fired on when they approached the site and killed 20 "terrorists" for the loss of one soldier in the ensuing shootout.
Reuters says the sect, modelled on the Taliban, is fighting to create an Islamic state in Nigeria, whose 160 million people are split evenly between Christians and Muslims.
Boko Haram spokesman, Abu Qaqa told a teleconference for journalists in Maiduguri, capital of Borno State, that his fighters had not been meeting at the place where the military said it killed them.
"They only succeeded in killing civilians," Qaqa said. "20 of us cannot risk sitting in a volatile place to hold a meeting ... It is not possible," he said.
The Islamists have killed hundreds in gun and bomb attacks in Nigeria, since they launched an uprising in 2009.
The violence has centred on Maiduguri and other parts of the north, but has spread across central Nigeria in the past year.
Many important figures in the sect have been killed or arrested in a military crackdown that appears to have weakened it since the beginning of the year.
But many civilians have also died or been beaten and harassed in the crackdown, fuelling resentment that helps generate support for the movement.
(www.thenationonlineng.net)
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