Nigeria says 74 Boko Haram fighters killed in assault

Nigerian troops killed 74 members of Boko Haram, a militant organization that says it is fighting "Westernization," in an air and ground assault, the country's military said on Friday, a further sign of stepped-up operations against the armed group that launched an uprising against the state in 2009. 

The offensive on Thursday targeted Boko Haram camps in the remote villages of Galangi and Lawanti in northeast Borno state, where the militants have their strongest presence.

"The operation, which involved ground and aerial assault supported by the Nigerian Air Force, led to the destruction of the identified terrorist camps, killing 74 terrorists while others fled with serious injuries," Nigerian army spokesman Lt. Col. Mohammed Dole said in a statement.

Dole said two soldiers were wounded, but the Nigerian military has in the past played down its own losses and those of civilians, security experts told Reuters.

The operation followed an assault Monday on Boko Haram camps in another part of Borno, which the military said left 37 dead.

In a separate outbreak of violence, suspected fighters stormed the city of Damaturu in Yobe state in coordinated raids on Thursday, burning at least four police buildings, a senior police officer who requested anonymity told Agence France-Presse. 

The officer said there were casualties from the attack, which will be seen as a setback in the campaign to end the insurgency.

Nigerian forces have intensified attacks against Boko Haram since May, when President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in three states in the northeast.

Boko Haram is fighting to establish an Islamic state in the country, which is made up mostly of Muslims and Christians. While the offensive appears to have scattered the movement, it has also seen reprisal attacks against civilians suspected of cooperating with the authorities.

Thousands have been killed since the group launched its uprising, turning itself from a clerical movement opposed to Western culture into an armed militia with links to Al-Qaeda's West African wing, Reuters reported. 

Boko Haram is seen as the biggest security threat to Africa's top oil producer. Although its activities are located hundreds of miles away from the southern oil fields, it has bombed the capital, Abuja, at least three times, including a deadly attack on a United Nations building in 2011. 

Wire services