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News Africa
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Nigeria fighters 'attack' pipeline
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Fighters from the Niger Delta, Nigeria's oil producing region, say they have attacked an oil pipeline belonging to the Shell petroleum company and killed 11 soldiers in an ensuing gun battle.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) said in a statement on Monday they had sabotaged the Shell pipeline at Awoba flow station.
The Nigerian army has, however, denied the claims made by Mend.
Sagir Musa, military spokesman in Rivers state, said: "The claims are mischievous lies deliberately told to gain popularity and mislead the people ... There was no attack on the facility and none of our soldiers were killed."
The Mend statement described the target of the attack as a "major trunk pipeline" in southern Rivers State.
"We flanked them in a counter-attack and killed in close combat all the drunken soldiers numbering 11 ... before using dynamite to sink the gunboat with its dead occupants," the statement said.
Shell was not immediately available for comment.
Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil producer and continues to battle fighters from Mend who have sabotaged several supply pipelines owned by Shell and other oil operators in the region.
Mend emerged in early 2006 as the leading group calling for a greater share of Nigeria's oil revenue.
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