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| - Six Chadian soldiers were killed near the Libyan border and in the southern Lake Chad region where Nigeria's Boko Haram jihadists have stepped up attacks, two provincial officials said Saturday. On Friday "three armed men intercepted a vehicle of the intelligence services at Kouri," near the border with war-riven Libya, and opened fire killing three soldiers and wounding two others, Ali Maide Kebir, governor of Tibesti province told AFP. Chadian soldiers in Tibesti face attacks from rebel and illegal gold miners. In the southern Lake Chad region bordering Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon, an army vehicle on Saturday "hit a landmine planted by Boko Haram killing three soldiers and wounding eight," Yacoub Mahamat Seitchimi, a senior local official said. The Chadian army was contacted by AFP but did not confirm the deaths. Boko Haram's insurgency, launched in northeast Nigeria in 2009, has killed more than 36,000 people and displaced more than two million from their homes. The violence has since spread to Niger, Chad and Cameroon. In March, Chad's armed forces suffered their biggest single-day loss, when 98 soldiers were massacred in their base at Bohoma, on the banks of Lake Chad. yas-dwi/ach/har
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