Terr4orist Environmental Group Kills Soldiers in Nigeria, Blows up Pipeline
A rebel group that has been attacking oil pipelines in southern Nigeria claimed responsibility on Monday for another strike and said it killed 11 government soldiers in fighting that followed the sabotage.
A fire burns following an attack on a pipeline in Nigeria in December 2006.
The Nigerian military confirmed an attack on an oil pipeline and an explosion, but called the claim that 11 soldiers were killed a “lie” and “pure propaganda.”
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, issued a statement saying it “successfully sabotaged another major trunk pipeline” belonging to the Shell Petroleum Development Company in the country’s Rivers State.
“Minutes after the sabotage, our fighters encountered a military gunboat which opened fire blindly on the advance guard. We flanked them in a counter-attack and killed in close combat all the drunken soldiers numbering eleven, collecting their weapons, ammunitions and bullet-proof vests before using dynamite to sink the gunboat with its dead occupants,” MEND said.