JIHADIST AMBUSH KILLS 18

KANO: Terrorists allied to Islamic State killed 18 Nigerian security personnel using roadside bombs and rockets in one of the deadliest assaults on the army this year.

Islamic State West Africa Province militants claimed responsibility for the massacre on a highway between Borno State capital Maiduguri and the town of Monguno.

Borno is at the heart of Nigeria’s brutal 12-year jihadist insurgency that has killed more than 40,000 people, displaced two million more and spilled over into neighbouring Chad, Cameroon and Niger.

Jihadists detonated roadside bombs before opening fire with rocket-propelled grenades and heavy weaponry, killing 16 soldiers and two members of a security team.

ISWAP has also intensified its attacks on civilians on the Maiduguri-Monguno highway, where they rob and kill motorists almost daily.