ABUJA (Xinhua) - Over 50 militants from Boko Haram terrorist group were killed in a battle with the Nigerian army in northern Nigeria, local media Premium Times reported Saturday.
Defence spokesman Major-General Chris Olukolade also reported the deaths of at least six soldiers, including a high-ranking officer, after the army repelled Boko Haram's attack in barracks and a police station in the town of Damboa, in Borno state late Friday.
Most of the soldiers and police were out on patrol then, the media reported, adding the military had seized four armored carriers.
The newspaper Vanguard reported at least 70 people were killed in the fighting.
Also on Friday, a suicide bomber targeting a mosque in northeast Nigeria killed five people and wounded dozens, according to security sources.
Boko Haram, which launched its uprising against the government in 2009, have killed thousands in their five-year insurgency for an independent Islamic state in the north. Several hundred people were killed in the past two months.