Boko Haram leader claims Dec. 2 attack in new video

KANO – Boko Haram’s leader said in a video obtained by
AFP on Thursday that the group was behind a daring raid
on military installations in the north Nigerian city of
Maiduguri earlier this month.
“Allah the Almighty has given us victory in the attack we
launched inside Maiduguri (which was) called Borno in
ancient times,” said Abubakar Shekau in a 40-minute clip.
Speaking in Arabic, Hausa and Kanuri widely spoken in
northeast Nigeria, Shekau added: “We stormed the city
and fought them (and) Allah blessed us with lots of booty.”
The video, which was obtained through an intermediary,
shows Shekau dressed in military fatigues with a turban
and Kalashnikov assault rifle leaning on his chest.
He speaks for 19 minutes in all while the rest of the tape
shows images of burning buildings and aircraft said to be
from the December 2 attack in Maiduguri, which is capital
of Borno state.

It also shows a display of weapons the banned Islamist
group says it seized in the attack, including dozens of
Kalashnikovs and rockets.
The authenticity of the tape could not be verified
independently.
Gunmen who arrived on pick-up trucks besieged an army
and air force base, destroying aircraft, razing buildings and
setting shops and petrol stations ablaze, witnesses said.
The early morning raid was seen as significant because the
Nigerian military had previously claimed to have pushed
the militants out of urban centres and into more remote,
rural areas.
Local people reported that the attackers were carrying
AK-47 assault rifles and rocket propelled grenades in the
assault, which prompted the local authorities to impose a
city-wide curfew.
Maiduguri is considered the spiritual home of Boko
Haram, whose name roughly translates from Hausa as
“Western education is sin”.
The group’s aim is to impose a harsh form of Islamic law
or sharia across the country.
Thousands of people have died in deadly violence since
2009, both at the hands of the militants and as a result of
the military response to the violence.
In the Maiduguri raid, Nigeria’s military said 24 militants
were killed and two service personnel were wounded.
But Shekau said only seven fighters lost their lives — three
in suicide bombings, three were shot and one in “friendly
fire”.
At least two local residents were also killed, people in the
city said.
The US State Department in July offered a reward of up to
$7 million for information leading to the arrest of Shekau.
In the video, he said “the whole world” feared him, name-
checking US President Barack Obama, French President
Francois Hollande, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu and even the late British premier Margaret
Thatcher.
Shekau singled out in particular the United States, which
on November 13 designated Boko Haram and its offshoot
Ansaru as international terror groups.
“You are boasting you are going to join forces with Nigeria
to crush us. Bloody liars,” he said, in an apparent
reference to a pledge by Washington to support Abuja in
the fight against the extremists.
“You couldn’t crush us when we were carrying sticks,” he
said, adding: “By Allah, we will never stop. Don’t think we
will stop in Maiduguri.
“Tomorrow you will see us in America itself. Our operation
is not confined to Nigeria. It is for the whole world.”
Shekau’s claims about the international nature of Boko
Haram stand at odds with analysts’ general assessments
that the group is largely Nigeria-based.
But the United States has said the group and Ansaru have
links the wider Islamist jihadi network, in particular Al-
Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which has provided
limited training and funding.(AFP)