Boko Haram pledges allegiance to IS

Maiduguri:Boko Haram has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in an audio message publi-shed online, after three bombs wreaked havoc in northeast Nigeria, killing 58 and wounding scores.
“We announce our alle-giance to the Caliph of the Muslims, Ibrahim ibn Awad ibn Ibrahim al-Husseini al-Qurashi,” Boko Haram leader A Shekau said, referr-ing to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.The eight-minute spee-ch, in which Shekau was not shown, was published on a Twitter account used by Boko Haram and sub-titled in English, French and Arabic. Shekau has previously mentioned al-Baghdadi in video messa-ges yet stop-ped short of pledging formal allegiance. But there have been increasing signs that the Nigerian militants, whose six-year insurgency has claimed more than 13,000 lives and left 1.5 million people homeless.  Nigeria’s President G Jona-than, who has persistently blamed the violence on outside forces, last month claimed the country had intelli-gence on Boko Haram links to IS. (AFP)