Nigerian soldiers in Bauchi, which neighbours Yobe, Borno and Adamawa, where a state of emergency has been declared. Photograph: Deji Yake/EPA
Nigerian troops shelled a remote hideout of Boko Haram as fighter jets joined a renewed military offensive aimed at flushing out the group.
The Islamic insurgents have seized swaths of the north of Africa's most populous country.
Soldiers shelled the Sambisa forest reserve in Borno, a state whose porous borders straddle three neighbouring countries, a military source said. "This is their main training camp in Nigeria," the source told the Guardian. "It is their men from here who snatched the French family," he added, referring to a kidnap in February in Cameroon's Waza park, part of the same forest reserve that spans the two countries.
The raid comes as Nigeria's president, Goodluck Jonathan, stepped up the fight against the extremists, whose four-year battle to carve an Islamic state in Africa's most populous nation has left more than 3,000 dead. Since he declared emergency rule on Tuesday, troops have poured into the three north-eastern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa.
Telephone services were cut off for two days in Borno state and would remain shut off to prevent insurgents from communicating until several other planned raids had been carried out, said two military officials.
Analysts say a military crackdown has already weakened urban cells in the group's main bases. But as blasts hit two police stations, a prison and a bank in north-western Katsina state late on Thursday – the first high-profile attack there since 2011 – some fear that the military risks being drawn into a drawn-out campaign against operatives who are adept at melting away and reappearing elsewhere. "What these bombs suggest is that they are going to try to widen the theatre of battle in order to stretch our armed forces," said a senior military officer.
Adding that troops had been put on "red alert" across the entire northern belt, he said: "This is what is militarily known as a long war. It's going to keep erupting and subsiding before it is finally won."
In Borno, the group's main operational base, which has been hardest hit, residents began to flee the increased presence of soldiers. "I am leaving today because my wife and kids are so afraid," said Sam Yashim, a telecoms engineer. "I can't even go to service some phone masts because soldiers won't let me go near certain areas."
Elsewhere, soldiers were greeted with cautious optimism. "People are watching them set up checkpoints all over town, but we are happy if this means the area will be secured," said Dankano Umar, a resident in Adamawa state, who said fighter jets had flown over his home in the past few days.
"Some areas are like a cemetery, deserted, but most people are just trying to get on with their lives."
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