The message, identified as
coming from Ansaru, could not be immediately verified by The Associated Press,
though it included photographs the group claimed showed the dead, who were
kidnapped from a construction company compound in February, in a raid that saw
a security guard killed . Those kidnapped included three Lebanese citizens and
one each from Britain, Greece, Italy and the Philippines — all employees of
Setraco, a Lebanese construction company with an operation in Bauchi state,
local officials said at the time.
British officials declined
to immediately comment Saturday. Two Nigerian military spokesmen declined to
immediately comment when reached by the AP, while a presidential spokesman and
a spokeswoman for the country's domestic spy service could not be immediately
reached.
The message, posted to an
Islamic extremist website Saturday, said Ansaru members killed the hostages
after British warplanes were reported to have been seen in the northern Nigeria
city of Bauchi by local journalists.
"As a result of this
operation, the seven hostages were killed," the group said in the
statement. It said a video of the killings would be posted online. An online
image accompanying the posting appeared to show a gunmen standing over dead
bodies.
The group said a message
from Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan that said the government would do
anything in its power to free the hostages also sparked the group's decision to
kill the hostages.
Ansaru previously issued a
short statement in which it said its fighters kidnapped the foreigners Feb. 16
from a construction company's camp at Jama'are, a town about 200 kilometers
(125 miles) north of Bauchi, the capital of Bauchi state. The attack saw gunmen
first assault a local prison and burn police trucks, authorities said. Then the
attackers blew up a back fence at the construction company's compound and took
over, killing a guard in the process, witnesses and police said.
The gunmen appeared to be
organized and knew who they wanted to target, leaving the Nigerian household
staff members at the residence unharmed, while the foreigners were quickly
abducted, a witness said.
In January 2013, Ansaru
declared itself a splinter group independent from Boko Haram, the north's main
terrorist group, analysts say. Boko Haram, whose name means "Western
education is sacrilege," has launched a guerrilla campaign of bombings and
shootings across Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north. Boko Haram is blamed for
at least 792 killings last year alone, according to an AP count.
On Saturday, a military
spokesman said at least two soldiers and 52 Boko Haram fighters were killed in
Maiduguri in fighting after a visit by the president. Those tallies could not
be independently confirmed by the AP. Security forces often downplay their
casualties, as well as those of civilians in the ongoing guerrilla fighting.
Britain previously linked
Ansaru to the May 2011 kidnapping of Christopher McManus, who was abducted with
Italian Franco Lamolinara from a home in Kebbi state. The men were held for
months, before their captors killed them in March 2012 them during a failed
Nigerian military raid backed up by British special forces in Sokoto, the main city
in Nigeria's northwest.
Ansaru earlier claimed the
kidnapping in December of a French national working on a renewable energy
project in Nigeria's northern Katsina state. Meanwhile, a group of men claiming
to belong to Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of seven
French tourists from northern Cameroon late February — a first for the group.
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