Cameroon state media says army kills 100 militants

YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) — Cameroon’s state media says the military has killed 100 Islamic militants who traveled from Nigeria to attack a town just across the border.

Citing a statement from the Communication Ministry, Cameroon Radio and Television said Tuesday that during the battle in Fotocol this weekend, the army fired mortars at the extremists and pushed them back into Nigeria. It said no Cameroonian soldiers were killed in the fighting.

Fotocol is just over the border from Nigeria’s Borno state, the birthplace of the Boko Haram Islamist militant group that is hardest-hit by its violent campaign to seize territory for an “Islamic caliphate.” Thousands of Nigerians have fled into Cameroon to escape the violence, but now the militants are attacking towns in Cameroon, too.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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