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YAOUNDE, CAMEROON —Chadian military airstrikes killed scores of Boko Haram fighters and injured several dozen more in the Lake Chad Basin, President Mahamat Idriss Deby said Friday.
Chad planned the operation against the Islamist militant group after Boko Haram fighters killed 40 Chadian soldiers in an attack on a military garrison last month.
About 700 Chadian soldiers celebrated as air force fliers returned to Kaiga Kindira, an island in the Lake Chad Basin near the border with Nigeria. Top military officials and Deby were there to greet them.
Deby said he was happy because Haskinite, an operation he launched to search for and eliminate Boko Haram members hiding in the Lake Chad Basin, had begun successfully with the strikes carried out Thursday night into Friday.
Military officials said the air attacks targeted five Boko Haram hideouts but did not identify locations.
Deby said he also has ordered close to 1,000 infantry and navy troops to eliminate Boko Haram fighters and protect civilians, who are constantly harassed, raped, maimed and killed by militants in the Lake Chad area.
Military officials said soldiers have seized many weapons and destroyed boats used by Boko Haram fighters to attack civilians and government troops.
Deby said the attacks on Boko Haram will continue until the group is eradicated.
Deby, who spoke on state TV, has been in areas of the Lake Chad Basin - shared by Cameroon, Nigeria, Niger and Chad - since October 28, when Boko Haram fighters attacked a military garrison, killing 40 soldiers and injuring scores of others, on the island of Bakaram, near the border with Nigeria.
Chad's government called on its citizens to support the ongoing operation by reporting strangers to soldiers, government officials and traditional rulers.
Passale Kanabe Marcellin, Chad's water and sanitation minister, told officials at the Lake Chad Basin Commission meeting in N'djamena on Friday he is happy villagers who live in fear of Boko Haram are assisting government troops by contributing food, water, first aid equipment and money.
He said Deby wants all countries of the Lake Chad Basin Commission to assist Chadian troops fighting Boko Haram by allowing soldiers to cross into Cameroon, Nigeria and Niger in pursuit of the militants.
Boko Haram launched an insurgency against the Nigerian government in 2009. Fighting spread into Cameroon, Chad and Niger, where the militants established bases and hideouts. The United Nations says the fighting has killed more than 40,000 people and displaced over 3 million.