The head of
state for the first time claimed direct links between the Sunni radicals
who have been waging a six-year insurgency in Nigeria and the Islamic
State group in Syria and Iraq.
He
told the Wall Street Journal in an interview: "Are they (the United
States) not fighting ISIS? Why can't they come to Nigeria?
"They are our friends. If Nigeria has a problem, then I expect the US to come and assist us."
But Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said there are no plans to send US troops to Nigeria.
"I can tell you that there are no plans as I speak here to send
unilaterally, to send or to add US troops into Nigeria. There are no US
troops operating in Nigeria," he told reporters.
Kirby said the United States was
in the early phases of helping establish a multi-national task force of
African nations to help Nigeria defeat Boko Haram.
Jonathan's
comments were published as hundreds of Islamist fighters invaded the
northeastern city of Gombe, firing heavy guns and throwing leaflets
calling for locals to shun the elections.
The
attack, which began at about 9:00 am (0800 GMT), saw residents flee and
the authorities impose a 24-hour lock-down in the city, which Boko
Haram has repeatedly targeted.
Nigeria's defence headquarters said it had repelled the attack.
"The terrorists attack on Gombe has been repelled. Troops are in pursuit", it said on Twitter.
Boko Haram has opened up two new
fronts in its campaign to create a hardline Islamic state in northeast
Nigeria, pushing into neighbouring Niger last week and, for the first
time on Friday, into Chad.
It
has also increased the frequency and intensity of its attacks on
northern Cameroon. The increasing regional threat has led to the
deployment of troops from all three neighbouring countries, reflecting
security fears.
- Foreign links -
Jonathan
and his government have long sought to portray the insurgency as being
fuelled by outside forces and he has previously called Boko Haram
"Al-Qaeda in west Africa".
Critics
have interpreted his attempt to blame foreigners for the violence that
has left more than 13,000 dead and displaced more than one million since
2009 as a diversion from national failings.
Boko Haram, which loosely
translates from the Hausa language widely spoken in northern Nigeria as
"Western education is forbidden", started out in 2002 as a largely
peaceful Islamist movement.
But
it has been transformed in the last six years from a rag-tag group of
guerrilla fighters into a conventional army, seizing territory and
dozens of towns in three northeast Nigerian states.
The
group has generally not been thought to have any direct operational
links with overseas jihadists, although some fighters may have received
training from Al-Qaeda-linked militants in north Africa.
Boko
Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has previously mentioned IS group leader
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in videos but has not pledged allegiance to the
outfit.
The Nigerian group's
tactics of extreme violence and mass casualty hit-and-run raids,
bombings and suicide attacks also predated those carried out by the IS
group.
But Jonathan told the
US newspaper that Nigeria had intelligence reports that Boko Haram was
receiving "training and funds" from IS militants.
The
United States has provided surveillance and intelligence specialists,
as well as aerial drones, to help in the high-profile hunt for 219
schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram last April.
But
bilateral ties have since been fraught over Washington's refusal to
provide military hardware because of concerns about human rights abuses
in the Nigerian army.
- Delayed election -
The
latest attack in Gombe, south of Boko Haram's centre of operations,
coincided with the original date for presidential elections, at which
Jonathan is seeking a second four-year term.
The
vote was postponed last Saturday after the electoral commission was
advised that regional forces needed more time to tackle the insurgents
and would not be able to provide security on polling day.
But
the six-week deadline to effectively secure and stabilise the northeast
and allow hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the violence to
vote has been seen as unrealistic.
Jonathan
on Friday maintained that postponing the elections until March 28 would
give the security agencies time to "clean up" the three states worst
hit by the insurgency for voting to take place.
CREDIT:yahoo
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