Boko Haram leader salutes global jihadists in video

NIGERIA: The leader of Nigeria's Boko Haram expressed solidarity with global Islamist fighters, saying the US and Britain "should witness that we are with our mujahideen brothers," in a video posted Thursday, SITE monitoring group said.

According to SITE, a US-based organisation, Abubakar Shekau gave the speech in Arabic in a 39-minute video posted to jihadist forums. It was not clear when it was recorded.

"The world should witness, and America, Britain, Nigeria and other crusaders, meaning America and Britain, should witness, and the Jews of Israel who are killing the Muslims in Palestine should witness... that we are with our mujahideen brothers in the cause of Allah everywhere," a translation by SITE said.

Boko Haram has been widely seen as a domestically focused extremist group, targeting symbols of Nigerian authority as well as churches, among other targets in its insurgency that has killed hundreds in Africa's most populous nation.

AFP