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AFP
KANO, NIGERIA
AT least 17 Nigerian soldiers were killed in a fresh Boko Haram attack on a military base in the country's northeast, military sources told AFP on Thursday, the third assault on three different bases in less than a month.
On Wednesday evening, heavily armed jihadists riding in trucks stormed and looted weapons and vehicles from a military base in Garunda village in Borno State, the epicentre of the Islamist insurgency that has been raging for nine years.
The attack is the latest of a series of bloody Boko Haram assaults on military bases in Nigeria, underscoring the continued threat the Islamists pose to the region and putting the spotlight on the Nigerian government's claim that Boko Haram is"decimated".
"Our troops came under attack from Boko Haram terrorists in Garunda last night," a military officer told AFP.
"Unfortunately we lost 17 troops, 14 others were injured while an unspecified number is still unaccounted for," said the military source, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorised to speak on the incident.
