WARRI, Nigeria - Nigeria's military sent helicopter gunships and boats Friday to attack a militant camp deep in the swamps of the southern oil region after the area's fighters hijacked a ship and seized 15 Filipinos. There were conflicting reports on casualties.
The militants said one of the hostages had been hit by a stray bullet and killed, but refused to give any further details. Their claim was impossible to independently verify.
Military spokesman Col. Rabe Abubakar said troops in Delta State were searching for the hostages kidnapped Thursday by followers of a notorious regional militant leader known as Government Tompolo.
Witnesses, private security personnel and ethnic leaders said the military employed more than a dozen gunboats and several helicopters in the attack on Tompolo's camp.
Edwin Clark, a leader of the ethnic Ijaw people who live in the area surrounding the militant camp, said townspeople had fled into the bush as the military fired weapons from the air, water and land.
"The military has declared total war on our people," he said.
The region's main militant group said it sank six military gunboats and seized three others in the region where Nigeria's crude oil is pumped. It said many soldiers had died.
But Abubakar said one soldier was wounded in the battles. He said there were "heavy casualties" on the side of the militants, who denied that claim.
The fighting ended months of relative calm in the Niger Delta. The militants say they're fighting to force the federal government to send more of the oil revenues it controls to the region where the crude is pumped.
Separately, prosecutors dropped 59 of 62 charges filed against a reputed militant leader on trial for illegally importing weapons to the region, the defendant's lawyer said. But Henry Okah still faces three charges of treason, which is punishable by death in Nigeria, said Okah's lawyer, Femi Falana.
The militants have given oil companies until Saturday to withdraw their employees from the Niger Delta, repeating threats they've made many times to target oil workers. A helicopter used by oil companies in the region was struck by gunfire Friday, a private security official said.
The government considers the militants common criminals who use political rhetoric to obscure their real goal, which is the lucrative overseas trade in oil stolen from the region's network of wells and pipelines.
Many Nigerians say elements of the military act in conjunction with the oil thieves, saying it would be impossible for large tankers to pull into Nigerian waters without the knowledge of security personnel operating in the region.
The militants, also linked to local political leaders who hire them to rig elections, routinely destroy pipelines, attack security forces and kidnap foreign workers, with the targets normally released unharmed after a ransom is paid.
The region remains desperately poor despite five decades of oil flowing from Africa's biggest producer.
