Two air force jets joined soldiers in attacking the rebels after they assaulted Gombe in the morning.
The Boko Haram fighters left in a convoy of vehicles carrying dozens of corpses, according to residents.
"They
were heard telling our people in the villages leading to Gombe that
they have not come to harm civilians but the security agents. They were
also dropping copies of papers with messages written in Hausa warning
people not to participate in the coming elections, lest they risk being
killed," said resident Malam Hassan.
The Associated Press obtained a
copy of the message in which Boko Haram warned that its fighters will
attack all polling stations in the March 28 elections. The Boko Haram
paper also said residents should not assist the army and pledged not to
attack those who stayed out of its fight against the government.
"We
are calling on you all to come and join us in the Jihad and embrace
Islamic Sharia jurisprudence," said the papers dropped by Boko Haram.
The fiercest fighting was about three kilometers (two miles) outside the town, resident Jummai Aliyu said.
Gombe has previously been attacked multiple times, including by a car bomb in December that killed at least 20 people.
Boko
Haram's Islamic extremist insurgency killed 10,000 people last year
compared to 2,000 in the four previous years, according to the U.S.
Council on Foreign Relations. Fighting has forced some 157,000 people to
seek refuge in Niger, while 40,000 others have gone to Cameroon and
17,000 are in Chad, according to the United Nations.
On Friday, the group staged its
first attack on Chadian territory, bringing to three the number of
neighboring countries roped into what had previously been an internal
Nigerian conflict. The targeted village, Ngouboua, was already home to
nearly 3,300 refugees who had fled Boko Haram-related violence in
Nigeria, according to the U.N.
Cameroon
and Niger have also been attacked. Along with Benin, all three have
vowed to contribute to a regional force against Boko Haram that is
expected to be launched in the coming weeks, though funding questions
remain unsettled.
Boko
Haram's media division on Saturday claimed on Twitter that "more than
48" soldiers had been killed in fighting in Diffa, Niger, and that "more
than 24" Chadian soldiers were killed in recent fighting in Gamburu,
Nigeria, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors
militant forums. The numbers could not be verified. They were higher
than casualty figures provided earlier by officials in Niger and Chad.
Nigeria announced Feb. 7 that it
was pushing back planned presidential and legislative elections by six
weeks, to March 28, because of insecurity.
The
United Nations special representative for West Africa said Friday that
Nigeria's military needs to show "greater resolve" in the widening fight
against Boko Haram.
SOURCE: yahoonews
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