A
new Boko Haram video shows the beheading of a man identified as the
pilot of a missing Nigerian Air Force jet and burnt out parts
of a plane
— the first indication that Nigeria’s homegrown Islamic extremist group
has the capability to bring down aircraft.
It also
allegedly features Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, a man Nigeria’s
military twice has claimed to kill in 2009 and again last year. Two
weeks ago the military said they had killed in battle a Shekau lookalike
who had posed in the group’s videos.
“Here I
am, alive and I will remain alive until the day Allah takes away my
breath,” the man says in the Hausa language. “Even if you kill me … it
will not stop us imposing Islamic rule … We are still in our Islamic
state, reigning and teaching the Koran.”
The United States still has a $7 million ransom on Shekau’s head, despite the death claims.
The video
was made available to The Associated Press through the same channels
used previously and seems to show the same man claiming to be Shekau.
In the
latest video, he says they are prosecuting in accordance with Shariah
law in areas under their control. Examples of punishments are shown,
including the stoning death of a man apparently accused of adultery; the
amputation of the hand of a young man accused of theft; the lashings of
a man and what appears to be a girl covered in the hijab.
The video ends with a show of burnt out plane parts in rugged bush.
Two pilots
and an Alpha jet have been missing since Sept. 11 when it left the
northeastern town of Yola on a bombing mission against Boko Haram.
The video
shows a kneeling man in a camouflage vest with his right hand in a
sling, with a fighter hovering over him with an axe, which is later used
in the beheading.
Speaking
in English, the victim identifies himself as a wing commander in the
Nigerian Air Force and says he was undertaking a mission in Kauri area
of northeast Borno state on Sept. 11.
“We were
shot down and our aircraft crashed,” he says, appearing to keep his
composure throughout the ordeal. “To this day I don’t know the
whereabouts of my second pilot.”
Shekau claims in the video to have brought down 10 military aircraft.
Nigeria’s
Defense Headquarters has denied speculation that Boko Haram brought down
a helicopter gunship that crashed in August. The pilot died, two crew
members survived.
Source:Punch Newspaper.

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