Nigerian military force spokesman Sagir Musa said on Saturday that the military in the country's oil-rich Niger Delta region countered an offensive by the militant Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) on Saturday.
He told local media that the militant group launched an attack on troops patrolling Eleme-Tombia, a riverside community in the Degema council area of Rivers State.
"Our men were patrolling the area when MEND opened fire on them. There was an exchange of fire, but we did not record any casualty," he said.
But spokesman of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), with the alias "Jomo Gbomo," said in a statement reaching here via Internet on Saturday that Nigerian military forces had launched full scale attack on militant camps in the country's southeastern Rivers State.
"At about 0900 Hrs today, September 13, 2008, the armed forces of Nigeria began a full scale aerial and marine offensive on the MEND positions and neighboring Ijaw communities in Rivers state with helicopter gunships, jet fighters and over 20 gun boats and landing crafts filled with heavily armed soldiers mainly from the northern axis of Nigeria," said the statement.
"All MEND positions in the Niger delta will respond to this unprovoked attack coming at a time the government is canvassing the so-called Niger Delta Ministry to hoodwink the people," it said.
The statement also revealed that civilians near the camps were under attacks from government forces.
Oil companies are warned to move out their workers within the next 24 hours, "because a hurricane is about to sweep through oil installations in the entire Niger Delta region," MEND warned in the statement.
In an updated statement received at midday, MEND, an active militant group operating in the oil-rich Niger Delta region, also reported three casualties of its side during the crossfire, saying a military helicopter was damaged by MEND fighters as the battle is going on.
Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua on Wednesday reshuffled his cabinet and created a new Ministry of Niger Delta, vowing to promote development and peace in the country's oil-producing area.
Since the beginning of 2006, militant groups emerged in Niger Delta region, fighting for more local control of natural resources, especially oil, through ways of kidnapping oil workers and attacks on oil facilities.
More than 200 foreigners have been kidnapped and a string of attacks on oil pipelines, wells and terminals have been registered by now, which have led to about 25 percent oil production drop compared with the country's peak oil output of 2.6 million barrels per day.
Source:Xinhua
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