Boko Haram is strapping bombs to birds as it continues to develop more deadly weapons in its bloody insurgency in Africa.
The commander of a coalition battling the Isis-affiliated militants
revealed the discovery at a meeting with American diplomats and
security officials.
Major General Lamidi Adeosun showed gruesome photos of the victims
of Boko Haram’s attacks and their latest weapons during the briefing at
the Multinational Joint Task Force's headquarters in Chad on Wednesday.
One picture showed a bird with an explosive strapped on its back, demonstrating “a lot of ingenuity,” he said.
Maj Gen Adeosun said his forces had received intelligence that Isis
members were being imbedded with Boko Haram but that the Nigerian
terrorist group had not satisfied requirements for greater operational
co-ordination.
It is not the first report of birds being used to carry explosive devices.
Photos emerged in July last year claiming to show bombs strapped to chickens by Isis fighters in the Iraqi city of Fallujah.
There was speculation that they could be resorting to increasingly
bizarre means of destruction while running out of ammunition but the
account could not be verified.
Isis is known to be unusually liberal with its use of explosives,
which it manufactures using cheap chemicals and equipment readily
available on the civilian market.
A Syrian officer involved in the operation to re-take the group’s
former stronghold of Palmyra last month described how jihadists had
“booby-trapped everything”, including animals and trees.
Boko Haram’s leader Abubakar Shekau made a pledge of allegiance to
Isis in March last year and released a message urging its fellow
sub-Saharan jihadists to do the same, further increasing the group’s
reach.
The move was a major coup for the so-called Islamic State, which
re-named its affiliate Wil�yat Gharb Ifrīqīyyah (West Africa
Province).
After expanding its campaign of terror from Nigeria to Chad, Niger
and Cameroon, Boko Haram was named the deadliest terror group in the
world last year.
The Global Terrorism Index said it was responsible for 6,644 deaths
in 2014 and that number is expected to have risen as its insurgency
against Christians and local government continues.
As well as high profile terror attacks and massacres, the group has
become notorious for large-scale kidnappings including the abduction of
more than 270 schoolgirls from Chibok.
Brigadier General Donald Bolduc, commander of US special operations
in Africa, described the surrounding Lake Chad Basin region as “ground zero” in the fight against extremism in Africa.
America, Britain and other European nations are among those supporting military intervention against Boko Haram.
More than 30 personnel from the British Army’s Royal Anglian
Regiment were deployed to train Nigerian soldiers earlier this year.
“We stand united with Nigeria in its efforts to defeat the murderous Boko Haram extremists,” Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary, said at the time.
He committed to doubling the number of British personnel carrying
out training in Nigeria this year, sending explosives specialists,
medics and an RAF training team.
AP
No comments:
Post a Comment