30 Jul 2008 09:13:01 GMT
Source: Reuters
PORT HARCOURT, July 30 (Reuters) - Rival militant factions in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta have clashed in an apparent turf war, killing at least one soldier from an army unit sent to intervene, a military spokesman said on Wednesday.
The fighting started late on Tuesday at Abonnema, around 14 km (9 miles) west of the main oil industry city of Port Harcourt, military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Sagir Musa said.
"We deployed our men to the area. Unfortunately our men were ambushed by the militants and there was heavy exchange of gunfire ... We lost one soldier and killed two militants in the ensuing battle," he said.
The fighting underscores the deteriorating security situation in the delta, the heartland of Nigeria's 2 million barrels per day oil industry, where militants have been blowing up pipelines and criminal gangs kidnapping people for ransom.
"It is just getting messier. It looks like there is a rupture developing between the main protagonists," one private security contractor working in the world's eighth biggest crude oil exporter said. (Reporting by Austin Ekeinde; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Catherine Evans) (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit:
Breaking News, Business, Financial & Investing News, Commodities & More | Africa.reuters.com )