Boko Haram Claims Victories Over Military, Seeks Help From Afghanistan
The leader of Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamists said his group
has scored several victories against the military during an ongoing
offensive while themselves sustaining little damage, in a video seen by
AFP on Tuesday.
"Since we started this ongoing war which they call state of
emergency ... in some instances soldiers who faced us turned and ran,"
Abubakar Shekau said in the hour-long video.
He claimed Nigerian forces "threw down their arms in flight."
He called on like-minded Islamists in countries including
Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq to join the fight to create an Islamic
state in Nigeria.
"We call to us our brethren in these countries I mentioned. Oh! Our
brethren, come to us," he said in the video, which alternates between
Arabic and the Hausa language spoken across northern Nigeria.
Nigeria launched an offensive against Boko Haram on May 15, after
President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in the
country's northeast, the Islamist insurgents' stronghold.
The video was delivered to AFP through an intermediary in a manner
similar to previous Boko Haram messages. The images of Shekau in the
vieo are consistent with those previously released.
The Boko Haram leader was designated a global terrorist by the United states last year.
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