Nigeria´s military claimed that it had killed 53 Boko Haram Islamist fighters when it repelled an attack on a military base in the northeast Nigerian town of Damboa.
A statement from defence spokesman Major-General Chris Olukolade added that five soldiers and a senior military officer had also been killed in an exchange of fire on Friday night.
The military often reports high casualty figures for the rebels and relatively low ones on its own side.
