Boko Haram straps bombs on to birds in desperate attempt to keep up its terror campaign

BOKO Haram has now resorted to strapping bombs to birds and releasing them into the air to attack soft targets as part of its ongoing war of terror in response to the recent successive of the Nigerian military in detecting suicide bombers.

 

Early last year, Boko Haram was on the offensive controlling 14 local governments across northeast Nigeria but since then, the military has succeeded in recovering most of the territory from the sect. However, Boko Haram has still been detonating bombs using suicide bombers but of late, the military has stepped up its efforts to arrest this.

 

According to Major General Lamidi Adeosun, the general officer commanding the Seventh Mechanised Brigade of the Nigerian Army, the sect has responded to this measure by using birds to carry out attacks. In recent pictures he showed to visiting US and European military experts, General Adeosun revealed images of a bird with an explosive strapped on its back, adding that Boko Haram demonstrating a lot of ingenuity.

 

General Adeosun said his force had received intelligence that Isis members were being imbedded with Boko Haram but that the Nigerian terrorist group had not satisfied requirements for greater operational coordination. This was not the first report of birds being used to carry explosive devices as photos emerged in July last year showing bombs strapped to chickens by Isis fighters in the Iraqi city of Fallujah.

 

There is speculation that Boko Haram could be resorting to increasingly bizarre means of destruction as it runs out of ammunition. Boko Haram’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, made a pledge of allegiance to Isis in March last year and released a message, urging its fellow sub-Saharan Jihadists to do the same, further increasing the group’s reach.

 

Brigadier Donald Bolduc, the commander of the United States Special Operations in Africa, described the Lake Chad Basin region as ground zero in the fight against extremism in Africa. America, Britain and other European nations are among those supporting military intervention against Boko Haram and more than 30 personnel from the British Army’s Royal Anglian Regiment were deployed to train Nigerian soldiers earlier this year.

 

Britain has pledged to double the number of personnel carrying out training in Nigeria this year, sending explosives specialists, medics and a Royal Air Force training team. Meanwhile, the Nigerian Army has advised the members of the public to refrain from organising solidarity rallies to celebrate the recent successes of the military against the Boko Haram sect in the northeast.

 

Acting director of army public relations, Col Sani Usman, said that while the military was not against the public’s desire to associate with the successes, it would not want such solidarity rallies. He added that it was necessary for the public to exhibit some caution as such rallies could distract the military.