Two senior members of the radical Boko Haram Islamic sect have been killed by Nigerian security forces in a shoot-out near the northern city of Kano, media reports citing unnamed officials said Monday.
The clash which resulted in the death of the two Boko Haram leaders, including its main spokesman Abu Qaqa, and the capture of two other sect members reportedly occurred on the outskirts of Kano. The militant group is yet to comment on the military's claims.
The verification of Abu Qaqa's death would be difficult as the name is most likely a pseudonym. The other sect leader killed in the shoot-out is said to be the group's representative for the central-northern Kogi state.
Notably, the Nigerian military had claimed in March that its troops had captured Abu Qaqa, who regularly signs emails sent to the media on behalf of the group, but later turned out to be just another sect member.
Nigeria's northern regions are predominantly Muslim, with the South being dominated by Christians. The Boko Haram sect is based in the mainly Muslim north and campaigns against Western education, which it considers as anti-Islamic.
The group wants strict enforcement of Islamic laws in Nigeria after overthrowing the current government. It is estimated that more than 1,400 people have been killed in Nigeria since the terror outfit began its campaign of violence in 2009.
The organization came into prominence in July 2009, when hundreds of its members were killed in fighting Nigerian security forces in the northern city of Maiduguri. The group has since claimed responsibility for bombing churches, police stations, military facilities, banks, and beer parlors in northern Nigeria, as well as the United Nations building and police headquarters in capital Abuja.
Earlier this year, the sect had claimed responsibility for a series of bomb blasts that killed at least 185 people in the northern city of Kano in January. The sect had also carried out a series of bomb attacks on churches across Nigeria on Christmas Day, killing at least 42 people.
The sect also claimed responsibility for the deadly car bomb attack on the U.N. building in Abuja on August 26, 2011. The attack left 23 people dead and more than 80 wounded. It was the second of its kind in Abuja, following a suicide bomb attack that targeted the police headquarters in June 2011.
Boko militants also carried out an attack on a federal prison in Koton-Karifi, a town in Kogi state located about 75 miles south of the capital Abuja, in February and freed about 120 inmates. The sect had earlier launched a massive attack that freed about 700 inmates, mostly sect members, from a prison in Bauchi state in September 2010.
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