Reuters) - Troops from
Chad and Niger pursued Boko Haram fighters across a northern Nigeria border
area on Thursday, driving them out of a village they held there and causing
some to flee into Niger, two senior Niger military officers said.
Niger and Chad are
participating in a joint offensive along with Nigeria and Cameroon aimed at
ending the Nigerian Islamist group's six-year insurgency, which has spilled
across Nigeria's borders to threaten regional stability.
A column of troops
left the Nigerian town of Damasak, which was retaken from the militants earlier
this month, in the morning to capture the Boko Haram-occupied village of
Gasheger, the sources said.
A Reuters witness
across the border in the nearby Nigerien town of Diffa, which has served as a
staging area for the operations, heard explosions around midday as the sources
said the coalition troops met resistance from the Islamists.
"We took back
Gasheger," one of the officers told Reuters.
During the clashes,
Boko Haram fighters fired a mortar that landed in the village of Kalgueri,
killing one woman, the sources said.
After being driven
from Gasheger, some Boko Haram fighters fled across the Komadougou River into
the town of Guesseri in Niger where soldiers from Niger's elite
American-trained anti-terrorist unit pursued them.
"More than 100
fighters were in Gasheger. They're now in an area with a lot of trees,"
the second source said.
The regional offensive
launched this year comes as Nigeria, Africa's most populous country and
biggest economy, prepares to hold elections on Saturday. Nigeria's elections
commission postponed the polls to allow the operation to go forward.
The offensive has succeeded
in driving Boko Haram from several towns and districts. But retreating Islamist
fighters have slaughtered civilians and kidnapped hundreds of villagers,
according to witnesses and residents
