ABUJA, Nigeria, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau is dead, a Nigerian army commander confirmed Friday.
Shekau was reported injured and "fatally wounded" in an Aug. 23 airstrike which killed several other Boko Haram leaders. Friday's announcement of confirmation of his death came not from the army's public relations department, the usual method for releasing military information regarding the fight against Boko Haram, but from Maj. Gen. Lucky Irabor, commander of the Operation Lafiya Dole, the campaign to eradicate the Islamist group. Irabor added a Shekau look-alike, used by Boko Haram in the past for propaganda purposes, was also wounded in the airstrike.