LAGOS: Nigeria’s military said on Tuesday it believes an air strike has “fatally wounded” Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, but there was no way to confirm yet another claim of the death of Nigeria’s Islamic extremist leader.

A statement does not say how the military got the information but identifies other commanders as “confirmed dead” in an air raid on Friday. Nigerian security forces have at least three times in the past declared that they have killed or fatally wounded Shekau, only to have him resurface in video and audio recordings.

The military has said in the past that Boko Haram was using look-alike fighters to impersonate the supposedly dead leader. The Nigerian Air Force carried out “the most unprecedented and spectacular air raid” while Shekau was praying on Friday at Taye village in the extremists’ Sambisa Forest holdout in northeast Nigeria, according to the statement signed by army spokesman Col. Sani Kukasheka Usman.

“Boko Haram terrorist commanders confirmed dead include Abubakar Mubi, Malam Nuhu and Malam Hamman, amongst others. While their leader, so-called ‘Abubakar Shekau’, is believed to be fatally wounded on his shoulders.

Several other terrorists were also wounded,” he said.

The statement came the same day US Secretary of State John Kerry met in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, with President Muhammadu Buhari, to discuss Islamic extremism and regional security.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2016