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 PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (AP) - Security forces battled militants in Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta Wednesday after attacks on a convoy and a pumping station, officials said, the latest in a rash of kidnappings and other violence that has damaged the country's important petroleum industry.
A major militant group said in an e-mail they killed nine soldiers and captured two government gunboats at the pumping station belonging to a Royal Dutch Shell PLC subsidiary about 25 miles west of Port Harcourt. The army gave no casualty figures and it was not possible to confirm the militants' claim.
The group, known as MEND, said it acted defensively after being attacked by army gunboats and a helicopter gunship.
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