Soldiers battled militia fighters around a southern Nigeria oil-industry center in a new government campaign against militants blamed for an upsurge of deadly raids around the city, officials said.
Troops in helicopters and gunboats attacked ethnic fighters Saturday in the mangrove swamps and creeks around Port Harcourt "to protect the city and allow people go about their lawful affairs," army spokesman Colonel Mohammed Yusuf said.
Yusuf declined to give details or a casualty count in the operation, which began Friday.
Port Harcourt is a key operational base for multinational oil companies pumping Nigeria's daily crude exports of 2.5 million barrels. Deadly fighting among rival factions battling for control of the region's oil proceeds have surged in recent weeks, threatening the flow of crude from Africa's largest exporter of crude.
Government troops on Friday confronted militia fighters of the Ijaw ethnic group at Isaka Island, 10km southeast of Port Harcourt, the militia group's leader, Asari Dokubo, said by telephone.
"We drove the ground troops away but they came after us with helicopter gunships," forcing the fighters to retreat, said Dokubo.
Security forces launched fresh air raids Saturday, said Dokubo. He said six of his militia fighters have suffered minor injuries but that none have been killed in the two days of fighting.
Dokubo said his Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force has carried out most of the recent attacks around Port Harcourt, targeting a rival militia group. Some 50 people are estimated to have been killed in the fighting over the past month.
Dokubo, who claims to lead 2,000 armed men, said he seeks "self-determination" for the estimated 6-8 million ethnic Ijaws of the Niger Delta.
Dokubo acknowledges financing his fighters by tapping oil pipelines to steal crude for sale locally and abroad.
The region's impoverished communities accuse the partnership of government and oil multinationals of depriving them of the oil wealth mined in their land.
"We want to take Port Harcourt. We want to liberate our people," he added.
Similar violence last year in and around the oil port city of Warri, 150km northwest of Port Harcourt shut down 40 percent of Nigeria's oil exports for several weeks. Nigeria, a member of OPEC, is the world's seventh largest oil exporter.
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