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![A man walks by the charred remains of houses burned by extremist Boko Haram fighters. The Boko Haram group's signature strategy is to raze buildings and entire villages in Nigeria's northeast. On Monday, they failed to seize control of a military base in neighboring Cameroon [AP]](http://thebricspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/AP290612933869-e1393793665632.jpg)
A man walks by the charred remains of houses burned by extremist Boko Haram fighters. The Boko Haram group’s signature strategy is to raze buildings and entire villages in Nigeria’s northeast. On Monday, they failed to seize control of a military base in neighboring Cameroon [AP]
On Tuesday, the Cameroon military said that one of their soldiers and 143 Boko Haram fighters were killed during a fierce attack against an elite military base in the northwest.
“The fighting was intense, but they were pushed back. We inflicted casualties upon them,” an army official told Agence France Presse earlier on Monday.
Cameroon officials said several hundred Boko Haram fighters were involved in the attack.
Taking on Cameroon from their bases in northern Nigeria is seen as an emboldened move by a militant group that has managed to survive several military campaigns to destroy it.
On January 4, Boko Haram seized the town of Baga in the northern state of Borno, which has been the focus of its attacks for the past few years, and launched a week of carnage and its signature scorched earth policy burning down buildings, schools and police stations.
The group already controls 16 neighboring towns, government officials in Nigeria have confirmed.
By January 9, local sources said that at least 2,000 people may have been killed since Baga was seized. Local residents have told Nigerian media that corpses litter the streets of the town.
Anti-terrorism experts believe that Boko Haram may have shifted its modus operandi following the capture of Iraq’s second largest city Mosul by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
The extremist group now appears to be trying to capture as much territory as possible in what it says will form an Islamic state governed by strict adherence to Sharia Law.
In August, Boko Haram declared captured territory in the northeast along the border with Cameroon as belonging to the new Islamic state.
The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies
