Gamboru (Nigeria) (AFP) - Chad said Wednesday it inflicted heavy losses
on Nigeria's Boko Haram, killing "over 200" Islamist militants in a
border town that it wrested from the rebels in a ground offensive.
Nine Chadian soldiers were also
killed and 21 injured Tuesday in Gamboru as regional forces took the
fight against the insurgents on to Nigerian soil for the first time, the
Chadian army said.
"This
toll is provisional," the Chadian military said in a statement, adding
that troops were still combing the town on Nigeria's border with
Cameroon for lingering rebel elements.
Around
2,000 Chadian troops backed by armoured vehicles poured across the
border into Gamboru on Tuesday after the African Union last week backed a
regional force to take on the extremists.
The
sound of automatic gunfire could heard Wednesday in the town, which has
been abandoned by residents after a barrage of air strikes by Chad in
the run-up to its offensive, an AFP journalist reported.
While
the operation in Gamboru continued, the town of Fotokol on the other
side of the border, in Cameroon, came under fresh attack from the
jihadists.
"The guys (Boko
Haram) entered this morning. The fighting between them and our soldiers
is very intense," a Cameroonian security source in Fotokol told AFP by
telephone.
The Cameroonian
troops had managed to repel the attack by mid-morning, after Chadian
soldiers crossed back from Nigeria to help defend the town.
- 'Hunt them everywhere' -
In Gamboru, the clashes left
scenes of desolation, with bodies lying on the ground, houses destroyed,
shops gutted and trucks charred.
"We
have routed this band of terrorists," the commander of the Chadian
contingent Ahmat Dari told AFP Tuesday, vowing to "hunt them down
everywhere."
Nigeria's
military has drawn fierce criticism for failing to hold back the
insurgents, who have stepped up their campaign of terror in country's
northeast in the run-up to presidential and parliamentary elections on
February 14.
In recent months the group has also carried out increasing cross-border raids, threatening regional security.
Chad's
intervention reflects the growing nervousness among Nigeria's
neighbours over the prospect of Boko Haram achieving its stated aim of
carving out an Islamic caliphate on their borders.
- Nigerian sovereignty 'intact' -
Nigerian defence spokesman Chris
Olukolade denied that the presence of foreign troops on Nigerian soil
compromised the country's sovereignty.
"Nigeria's
territorial integrity remains intact," he said, claiming national
forces had "planned and are driving the present onslaught against
terrorists from all fronts in Nigeria, not the Chadian forces".
Regional forces have gone into action on several fronts.
Chadian
troops and vehicles have massed near Boko Haram-held towns along
Nigeria's border with Niger, pointing the way to another possible
cross-border operation.
"A contingent of about 400 vehicles and tanks is stationed between Mamori and Bosso," Niger's private radio Anfani reported.
- French help -
France
is supporting the operations by carrying out reconnaissance flights
over border areas of Chad and Cameroon, defence officials in Paris said.
At
least 13,000 people have been killed and more than a million forced
from their homes since Boko Haram launched an insurgency in 2009.
The group has stepped up its attacks in recent weeks, in a move believed to be aimed at disrupting the elections.
The rebels have tried, in vain, to capture the strategic northeastern town of Maiduguri twice in the past week.
On
Monday, President Goodluck Jonathan -- who is running for re-election
against a former military ruler who has vowed to defeat Boko Haram --
escaped a suspected suicide bomb attack after attending a campaign rally
in Gombe in the northeast.
Chad's President Idriss Deby sent
soldiers to Cameroon in mid-January to assist troops from Yaounde
fighting increasing rebel incursions in the country’s far northeast.
N’Djamena was already part of a long-standing regional force with Niger and Nigeria in the Lake Chad area.
But
that force had been assumed to be moribund after Boko Haram overran the
multi-national base in Baga, northern Borno state, on January 3, in an
attack that also left hundreds of civilians feared dead.
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