Boko Haram leader says group kidnapped 300 boys from Nigeria school

Dec. 15 (UPI) -- The leader of Nigerian Islamic extremist group Boko Haram said Tuesday his group was behind the abduction of more than 300 boys from a school in the northwestern part of the country last week.

The leader, Abubakar Shekau, said in an audio recording that Boko Haram was responsible for the abductions at the Government Science Secondary School in Kankara, in Katsina State on Friday.

Nigerian officials had initially suspected other bandits for the kidnappings, but some experts said the attack resembled a Boko Haram operation.

A large group of men armed with AK-47s overwhelmed security at the school before marching more than 300 students into the forest.

Boko Haram has previously attacked residents in the northeastern part of Nigeria and experts say the kidnapping marks a significant spread for the militant organization.

"[Shekau] wanted to make a big political statement that we are attacking you in the northeast, we are abducting your children in the northeast, and now we are doing it in the northwest," Bulama Bukarti, a Boko Haram specialist at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change in London, said.

"This is a huge announcement -- an audacious demonstration of capacity."

Boko Haram is widely known for kidnapping almost 300 girls from a school in the northeastern town of Chibok in 2014. Many of them are still missing.