Two Cameroon soldiers 'killed in crossborder Boko Haram attack'

Yaoundé (AFP) - A suspected crossborder raid overnight by Nigeria's radical Islamic group Boko Haram killed two Cameroonian soldiers, a Cameroonian security official said Friday on condition of anonymity.

The attack occurred late Thursday in the border village of Balgaram in northern Cameroon. Eight soldiers posted there fought back, and "in the clash we lost two men," the official said.

Military reinforcements were sent to the area and several troops "entered Nigerian territory with the aim of finding the assailants," the official said.

The armed Boko Haram movement is seeking to install an extremist Islamic state in Nigeria. It started its bloody insurgency in 2009.

In recent days, the group has been blamed for several clashes, abductions and killings targeting troops in northern Cameroon deployed to counter them.

More than 3,000 Nigerians fleeing Boko Haram attacks have taken refuge in the Cameroonian town of Fotokol, a municipal official said.

"We are worried about infiltrations" by the Islamists among the refugees, a police officer in the town said.