Thursday, 28th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search

Shekau dismisses claims he is wounded in air stike in new video

By Online Editor
06 May 2017   |   9:25 am
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has dismissed claims that he was wounded in an airstrike in a new video posted on YouTube.

This file screengrab taken on May 6, 2017 from a Boko Haram video released by the Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram shows the leader of the Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau flanked by two fighters at an unidentified location. PHOTO: THE GUARDIAN / BOKO HARAM / YOUTUBE

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has dismissed claims that he was wounded in an airstrike in a new video posted on YouTube.

Shekau claimed the latest video, 14 minutes long, was shot on Thursday, May 4, barely 12 hours after military sources said he had been wounded.

Wearing a military camouflage and flanked two of his fighters, the Boko Haram leader boasted that he’s alive and that the Nigerian military will never find him.

Citing military and civilian sources, AFP claimed on Wednesday that the terror had been injured and and his deputy Abba Mustapha, alias Malam Abba, was killed in the attack along with another key lieutenant, Abubakar Gashua, alias Abu Aisha, when two Nigerian Air Force jets bombarded fighters who had gathered for prayers in Balla village, some 40 kilometres from Damboa, on the edge of the Sambisa Forest, last Friday.

In an emailed statement on Tuesday night, the air force said it had bombed “a gathering of Boko Haram terrorists” last Friday “in a village 3.42 km northeast of Mangosum”

“Battle damage assessment conducted after the strike showed that several leaders of the Boko Haram terrorist organisation and their followers were killed during the attacks,” it added. But it did not mention that Shekau was injured.

In this article

0 Comments