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Chad forces bomb Boko Haram in Nigeria

Chadian military helicopters have struck Boko Haram positions in the Nigerian border town of Gamboru.

Aid workers evacuate a man injured in a suicide blast in the northeastern Nigerian city of Potiskum on February 1, 2015. (AMINU ABUBAKAR/AFP/Getty Images)
Aid workers evacuate a man injured in a suicide blast in the northeastern Nigerian city of Potiskum on February 1, 2015. (AMINU ABUBAKAR/AFP/Getty Images)

Chadian aircraft have struck Boko Haram positions in the Nigerian border town of Gamboru for a second straight day.

Two military choppers pounded targets in Gamboru for about two hours on Sunday, setting off loud explosions and sending thick clouds of smoke into the sky, an Agence France-Presse reporter said from the town of Fotokol about 500 metres away.

The town in far northeastern Nigeria, on the border with Cameroon, was already strafed by two Chadian fighter jets on Saturday.

Boko Haram overran Gamboru several months ago as part of its campaign to seize territory in the region and create an Islamic state.

The uprising has become a regional crisis.

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In January, Chad sent a large contingent of troops to Cameroon to help fight incursions by Boko Haram into its territory.

Three Chadian soldiers and 123 Boko Haram fighters were killed in two days of clashes in northern Cameroon earlier this week, according to Chad's military.

A fourth Chadian soldier died of his injuries in hospital, according to the military hospital in Chad's capital N'Djamena.

On Sunday, Chadian and Cameroonian troops travelling in armoured vehicles equipped with artillery had massed in Fotokol.

"Through these air strikes we aim to neutralise the enemy to pave the way for Gamboru to be liberated," a Chadian army officer said.


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