Military Kills Boko Haram Kingpin

Brigadier General Chris Olukolade

The military Thursday  claimed  that it had killed a top commander of Boko Haram, Abubakar Adam Kambar, designated "global terrorist" by the United States along with two others on June 21, 2012.

The US Department of State  designated Kambar along with Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau  and Khalid al-Barnawi as Specially Designated Global Terrorists under section 1(b) of Executive Order 13224. It described al-Barnawi and Kambar as having ties to Boko Haram, and close links to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, a designated foreign terrorist organisation.

However, the Nigerian military, according to a report thursday by Agence France Presse (AFP), claimed that Kambar was killed in an operation last year, though Washington had not confirmed the death.

Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed Suleiman said Kambar  was killed on March 18, 2012, three months before the US label.

Defence spokesman, Brigadier General Chris Olukolade,   said that might have been because information had not been properly passed along, but could not give further details.

Another military spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa, also confirmed the death but declined to give details on why the US designation would have been issued afterwards.

"We trailed him to somewhere. He didn't want to be arrested, so we gunned him down," Suleiman told AFP after a briefing to journalists in Maiduguri where he mentioned Kambar's killing.

US officials in Nigeria were not immediately available to comment.

During the briefing, Suleiman called Kambar "the main link with al-Qaeda and al-Shebab," referring to Somalia's Islamist insurgent group.

Security sources had previously estimated Kambar to be in his mid-30s and a native of Borno State.

He was said to have been an active member of Boko Haram at the time of a 2009 uprising in Maiduguri, which was crushed by the military.

According to security sources, he fled Nigeria after the uprising was put down but eventually returned.

Boko Haram members have trained with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in northern Mali and there have been suspicions of further links with it and other extremist groups in Africa.