this week blamed on the jihadists.
The government also Wednesday
announced it was banning the burqa nationwide in a security clampdown
following Monday's attacks in N'Djamena that left 33 people dead and
more than 100 wounded.
Chad's
military vowed it would continue its "merciless" pursuit of the
Islamist insurgents "so that no drop of spilt Chadian blood goes
unpunished".
"In response to
the cowardly and barbaric acts perpetrated by Boko Haram terrorists...
the armed forces carried out reprisal air strikes on the terrorists'
positions in Nigerian territory on Wednesday," the military said in a
statement.
Six Boko Haram
bases were destroyed in the air raids, which caused "considerable human
and material losses", it said, without giving further details.
Monday's
attacks on the police headquarters and a police academy in N'Djamena
were the first in the capital of the central African country, which has
taken a lead role in a regional offensive against the Nigeria-based Boko
Haram.
No group has claimed
responsibility but Chad and its allies immediately blamed the
insurgents, who have carried out a series of bloody attacks in border
areas of countries that share a frontier with northeastern Nigeria.
- 'Seize and burn burqas' -
Chad also Wednesday banned the full-face Muslim veil and ordered security forces to seize burqas from markets and burn them.
"Wearing
the burqa must stop immediately from today, not only in public places
and schools but throughout the whole of the country," Prime Minister
Kalzeube Pahimi Deubet told religious leaders the day before the start
of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
Any
type of clothing that leaves only the eyes visible is a form of
"camouflage" and is now banned, he added, asking religious leaders to
spread the message in mosques, churches and other holy places.
Deubet said security forces in
the Muslim majority country had been instructed to "go into the markets
and to seize all the burqas on sale and burn them".
Anyone found wearing a burqa will be "arrested, tried and sentenced in summary proceedings", he added.
Boko Haram has used female suicide bombers to launch attacks in the past by hiding explosive devices under their clothes.
Chad's government on Tuesday declared three days of national mourning for victims of the blasts.
President
Idriss Deby said he was "not surprised" Chad has been targeted because
of the leading role it is playing in the regional effort to crush Boko
Haram fighters.
- 'Don't drop your guard' -
"I
have continually told the government to not drop its guard," he said,
urging the international community to back Chad and its neighbours in
their campaign.
Nigeria,
Chad, Niger, Benin and Cameroon agreed last week to set up a regional
task force of 8,700 soldiers, police officers and civilians, based in
N'Djamena.
Boko Haram's
leader Abubakar Shekau has threatened several times to attack Chad and
other countries fighting the militants, whose bloody six-year insurgency
is increasingly spilling across Nigeria's borders.
Security
was stepped up in N'Djamena after the bombings, with scores of police
and soldiers patrolling the streets and stopping cars for security
checks.
Vehicles with tinted
windows have been barred from the streets, and the area around the
presidential palace and the police headquarters sealed off.
The
burqa ban was ordered by a crisis committee set up on Tuesday after the
president returned from an African Union summit in South Africa.
Prosecutors also arrested several people on the same day.
Source:AFP
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