AP) _ Militants said they destroyed an oil pipeline Monday in Nigeria’s petroleum-producing region and killed 11 soldiers in an ensuing gunbattle with security forces.
� The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta says it attacked the pipeline, operated by a Royal Dutch Shell PLC joint venture, early Monday.
� The group says its fighters later battled troops moving in boats in the waterways of the southern oil region. The claims could not immediately be verified.
� Shell officials were not immediately available for comment. A military spokesman had no immediate confirmation of any overnight incidents.
� The militants said a boat carrying members of the military task force sent to police the delta’s vast network of waterways crossed paths with the militants after they blew up the pipeline, sparking the firefight. The militants said they took the dead troops’ weapons and ammunition, then dynamited and sank the military boat.
� If confirmed, Monday’s attacks would stand as an unusually deadly engagement between militants and security forces. Militants and criminals who ride in outboard engine-powered skiffs operate nearly with impunity in the shallow and twisting creeks, which the military is prevented from entering by the larger size of their water craft. The militants mostly avoid the patrols, and armed engagement is relatively rare.
� The militants have stepped up their activities since one of their putative leaders was arrested and charged with treason and terrorism. A series of pipeline bombings has trimmed oil output in Africa’s biggest producer, helping send crude prices to historical highs.
Se below fr the full e-mail from MEND:
From: Jomo Gbomo
Sent: Monday, May 26, 2008 8:45 AM
Subject: Shell Pipeline attack at Awoba Flow Station!
On Monday, May 26, 2008 at 0100 Hrs, backed by heavily armed fighters, detonation engineers from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) successfully sabotaged another major trunk pipeline at Awoba Flow Station in Degema Local Government Area of Rivers State belonging to the Shell Petroleum Development Company.
Minutes after the sabotage, our fighters encountered a military gunboat which opened fire blindly on the advance guard. We flanked them in a counter-attack and killed in close combat all the drunken soldiers numbering eleven, collecting their weapons, ammunition’s and bullet-proof vests before using dynamite to sink the gunboat with its dead occupants.
The two traumatized adolescent girls found in the company of the soldiers were hurt, not from the skirmish, but from gang rape by the soldiers of the Nigerian army. They were dropped off in the neighboring village by our men who have since returned safely to camp.
Today’s attack is dedicated to the administration of Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan who have failed after one year in office to ensure peace, security and reconciliation in the Niger Delta region.
Jomo Gbomo