Nigeria armed group claims attack on oil pipeline

Lagos, December 19: The main armed rebel group in oil-rich southern Nigeria early Saturday attacked a crude oil pipeline operated by Shell and Chevron, the militants said in a statement.

MEND said the “warning strike (was) carried out by five boats involving thirty five … fighters armed with assault rifles, rocket launchers and heavy calibre machine guns … at about 0200Hrs today… on a major Shell/Chevron crude pipeline in southern Rivers State.”

The attack by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta claimed in an e-mail statement came after a two-month truce on strikes on oil installations by militants.

—Agencies