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The Nigerian military has said that the leader of militant Islamist sect Boko Haram may have died of gunshot wounds weeks after a clash with soldiers.
Abubakar Shekau had been blamed for a campaign of deadly attacks on security targets and churches across Africa’s biggest oil producer.
Armed assailants attacked a number of security force headquarters and checkpoints in the cities of Al-Arish and Al-Hassana in Central Sinai, resulting in the death of one soldier, with five others sustaining injuries.
Assailants fired RPG’s at the Al-Mahajr checkpoint located in the vicinity of the Al-Arish airport, resulting in the death of one soldier, injury of two others, and destruction of one armoured police vehicle. The injured were transferred to the Al-Arish military hospital, with a medical source describing their condition as stable.
Syrian rebels killed at least 11 people, including civilians, in an attack on a checkpoint west of the city of Homs on Saturday that official state media described as a massacre.
Most of those killed were Christians, activists and residents said. Some were from the National Defense Army, a militia which fights alongside President Bashar al-Assad’s soldiers, and others were civilians, they said.
SUSPECTED Boko Haram Islamists have stormed a town in northeast Nigeria, opened fire on police and civilians and killed 11 people, residents and a local lawmaker say.
The attack happened late on Thursday in the town of Damboa in Borno state, Boko Haram’s stronghold and where Nigeria has imposed a state of emergency as it pursues an offensive against the insurgent group.
Somalia says it has destroyed 17 operation centres used by the al-Shabaab militant group in Mogadishu as it looks to improve security in the capital.
Interior Affairs and National Security minister Abdikarim Hussein Guled on Monday said that the security forces had also arrested dozens of loyalists to the terror group.