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Boko Haram attacks town bombed by Nigerian air force, 15 killed

By REUTERS

JANUARY 22, 2017 00:25

RANN, Nigeria - Around 15 Boko Haram fighters were killed when the jihadists attacked a town in northeastern Nigeria, two days after the air force accidentally killed dozens of people there, local and military officials said.

On Tuesday, the air force said it had bombed Rann in Borno state, epicentre of Boko Haram's seven-year-long attempt to create an Islamic caliphate in the northeast.

Boko Haram fighters then attacked Rann - home to thousands of people displaced by the jihadists' insurgency - using two jeeps on Thursday night, residents said.

"We battled them for almost 30 minutes," Lieutenant Colonel Igwe Omoke, commander of the 3rd battalion based in Rann, told Reuters on Friday during a visit organized by the army.

"We suddenly saw residents running towards the battalion headquarters and we quickly mobilized troops," he said.

A Reuters reporter saw six dead Boko Haram fighters lying in front of the army base in Rann where many ramshackle huts had been destroyed by the air strike. The attackers had come from nearby Cameroon, less than ten kilometers away, officers said.

The air strike killed more than 200 people, more than the up to 170 reported dead by aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) on Friday, a local official said.

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