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| - Nigeria's military said Friday that security forces killed 10 armed criminals after they ambushed and murdered soldiers in the central state of Benue, where gangs are known to operate. Violence erupted in the state when two communities clashed over a land dispute, prompting a military operation, officials said. On Monday, an army battalion was attacked by armed criminals locally known as bandits. The troops "were seized at a checkpoint mounted by the so-called Bonta Boys and taken into Konshisha forest where they were all brutally murdered," Onyema Nwachukwu, a spokesman for Nigeria's military said in a statement. "The bandits proceeded to burn all the 11 soldiers and their officer beyond recognition while their weapons and ammunition were carted away." A previous statement from the army had said that 10 soldiers and an officer were killed. "Military reinforcements were dispatched to Bonta the following morning. Unfortunately, the reinforcement also came under attack from close to 500 armed youths." After more than four hours of "intense fighting" including close air support, according to the statement, "10 armed bandits were killed." "Apart from this initial 10 bandits, there are no other civilian casualties recorded in any part of Konshisha till date," said Nwachukwu. Earlier Friday, a group of local residents known as the Shangev-Tiev Assembly had issued a statement saying that houses were razed in 15 villages by the military and that people were killed, claims that AFP could not immediately verify. The military statement said some armed bandits escaped into neighbouring villages and "troops destroyed the houses and other buildings which the criminals used as hideout." Another community leader called on the army to exercise restraint in its response. "We are appealing to the army to stop their reprisals on innocent communities who have been suffering as a result of the activities of the miscreants," Chief Edward Ujege, former president of the Tiv ethnic group told AFP. The state governor, Samuel Ortom, without addressing allegations from residents, also urged "the military to avoid civilian casualties and protect law abiding people while efforts are on to recover their missing weapons". Deadly clashes between nomadic herders and farmers over land, grazing and water have plagued parts of central Nigeria for years. Nigeria's security forces are battling on several fronts -- a more than decade-long jihadist insurgency in the northeast, criminal kidnap gangs in the northwest and a separatist militia in the southeast. lhd/joa/pma/bp
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