MAIDUGURI, Nigeria - Nigerian police vowed to seize or kill Islamic militants blamed for a police station raid which claimed five lives, and also sought to reassure scared villagers in embattled mountains.
For days, the security forces have been pursuing the self-styled Taliban, an armed group which killed four policemen and a civilian on September 20 when they attacked a police station at Gwoza in northeast Borno State.
The clashes and the arrival the military have scared people in Gwoza and in villages in the nearby Mandara mountains straddling the border with Cameroon, where the gang has sought refuge.
In all, 28 of the assailants have been killed in the manhunt, according to officials.
"We are aware of the concerns of the people in the state, especially in Gwoza, about this group of criminals and we are doing everything possible to track all of them down," Borno State Police Commissioner Ade Ajakaye told AFP. One of the militants was captured alive on Sunday, Ajakaye said. The insurgents took seven people hostage, two of whom they have killed, throwing their bodies down the mountainside while one escaped, survivors said.
"This is why the current operation will continue on the mountains until we are able to arrest or kill the remnants of this group. We have broadened our intelligence strategies all over the place," Ajakaye said.
Police were also trying to the fears of residents, after the chairman of the Gwoza local government council, Umar Sa'ad, said fear was palpable among people in the state over the presence of the extremists in their region.
Fifty assault rifles and hundreds of rounds of ammunition were recovered from militants shot dead by soldiers last week, along with books in Arabic about Islam, according to official.
"We will not relent in our effort until we are able to get all of them," Ajakaye said. He earlier told AFP that security agents were already closing in on the fleeing militants.
The insurgents who struck on Monday were mainly university students who claim to draw inspiration from Afghanistan's Islamic Taliban militia.
They said that their motive is to establish the Islamic faith in Nigeria, especially in the northern part of the large west African country.
Already, the strict Islamic legal code otherwise called the Sharia has been introduced in at least a dozen northern Nigeria states since the country returned to democratic rule in May 1999.
Nigeria, a country of 130 million people, is evenly divided between Christians and Muslims with about 10 percent practising traditional or African religion.
In January, Islamic militants launched attacks in neighbouring Yobe State which were put down by soldiers after three days of fighting.
During that fighting, scores of the insurgents, who numbered about 200, were killed and 50 taken prisoner, but others evaded arrest and went underground.
Nigerian authorities are pressuring Cameroon to extradite five of the Islamic militants arrested as they entered its territory, Nigerian officials said.