Twelve Nigerian militants and a naval officer were Saturday killed in a gun battle near a Royal Dutch Shell natural gas plant in the oil-producing Niger Delta Region. A spokesperson for the military task force in southern Rivers State said militants ambushed two navy gunboats on patrol in Rivers State. The Shell-operated gas plant did not come under fire.
wo security sources confirmed the killing. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which launched a campaign of violence against the oil sector early 2006, dismissed the high casualty report. Militant attacks on Nigeria ’s oil facilities have become increasingly frequent, shutting down a fifth of oil production in the last years.
