The warning came as militants and the army exchanged fire after a government helicopter gunship attacked barges allegedly used by smugglers to transport stolen crude oil.

Correspondents say the militants provide security for the smugglers.

Nigeria is Africa's leading oil exporter and the fifth-biggest source of US oil imports, but despite its oil wealth, many Nigerians live in abject poverty.

Aims

It is the first time the military leader of the Mend movement, Major-General Godswill Tamuno, has spoken publicly of his group's aims.

He refused to be interviewed on tape or for his location to be disclosed.

He told the BBC's Abdullahi Kaura Abubakar that they had launched their campaign, called "dark February", to ensure that all foreign oil interests left.

He said that they had had enough of the exploitation of their resources and wanted to take total control of the area to get their fair share of the wealth.

Our correspondent says the movement brings together a variety of local Ijaw groups that had been operating in the Niger Delta before.

The group enjoys considerable local support and it is difficult to pinpoint exactly who is a member, he says.

Mend's leaders tend to like to be faceless, our reporter says, and they usually send statements to the media via email.

Shell, one of the oil companies operating in the Niger Delta, told our reporter that security measures were being taken to secure their staff and property, but would not give details.

Well armed

The Niger delta has been the scene of a low-level war in recent months and the government has increased its military presence in the region.

After a government raid on oil barges earlier this week, Mend released a statement saying the helicopter gunship had fired rockets and machine-guns at targets on land and accused the military of targeting civilians.

It warned that its fighters were capable of shooting down military helicopters and accused Shell of helping out the security forces by allowing them use of an airstrip it operates.

The military has denied it used the facility.

According to AFP news agency, Shell has not confirmed or denied that its airstrip was the base for the attack.

The smugglers are believed to exchange oil for weapons from eastern Europe.

Shell, defending itself on the allegation of allowing its Osubi airstrip in Warri to be used by the military as base for the attack said it had no control over the use of the airfield.

Fire-fighters were battling the blaze on a well head in the Cawthorne Channel, near Port Harcourt last night, the Anglo-Dutch oil giant said.

“The cause of the incident is not known and the company’s fire crew and oil spill control as well as technical intervention teams are being mobilised to the site,” Shell’s Public Affairs Manager, Don Boham said.

While the fire continued, a nearby plant, the Cawthorn Channel-1 flow station, was shut, cutting production equivalent to 37,800 barrels per day. Shell was forced to close down four of its Niger Delta flow stations last month, following violent attacks, and was already losing 106,000 barrels per day in production before yesterday’s fire.
“We have informed the relevant government agencies. The cause of the fire, volume of oil spilled and the effects are being investigated,” Boham said.

However, it was not immediately clear whether the blaze was the result of sabotage or an accident.

On Wednesday, a military helicopter gunship strafed barges belonging to oil smugglers in the Delta. Militants accused Shell of allowing the army to use the firm’s Warri airstrip as a base for the strike and threatened revenge.

Death toll rises to 30

Meanwhile, tension heightened in the Niger Delta yesterday after Ijaw leaders said 30 people died in Wednesday’s attacks on Perezouweikore-gbene community by military men attached to the Joint Task Force (JTF) led by Brigadier General Elias Zamani.

The leaders under the aegis of the Warri Ijaw Peace Monitoring Group (WIPMG) described the attack as unacceptable and asked the Federal Government to call General Zamani to order, adding that the action of his men was capable of plunging the Niger Delta into a fresh crisis, which according to them, “may be worse than what we have experienced in the past.”

The JTF had, through its spokesman, Major Said Hameed, said the gunship attacked eight barges used by illegal bunkerers to store crude oil but WIPMG dismissed the allegations, pointing out that the attack was deliberate and a war against the Ijaw nation.

Spokesman for WIPMG, Chief Patrick Bigha, said: “We condemn in its entirety the recent air bombardment of Ijaw community in Gbaramatu Kingdom in which 30 persons are confirmed dead. We the leaders visited the scene of the incident today (yesterday) and understand that the action was a deliberate military offensive against innocent and law-abiding civilians. That must be condemned by all right-thinking Nigerians.


“It beats the imagination of the Ijaw that the JTF led by Zamani would carry out such a callous act in the guise of fighting illegal bunkering of which the same security agencies are the worst accomplices. This is just a war against the Ijaw that we had been hearing the rumour. But it is very unfortunate for the military to unleash such mayhem on our people. This is unacceptable.

“The Federal Government and Delta State government should call Zamani to order or he should be held responsible for any crisis that may erupt in the Niger Delta.
“Their recent action has punctured the prevailing peace in the Niger Delta. We also see this as another grand design to deny the Ijaw of Warri to peacefully participate in the forth-coming democratic dispensation in 2007. And such move may be grave for the state.

“If truly the action of the JTF was to destroy barges used by illegal oil bunkerers, then it would not have been this manner as the Navy used to seize barges and vessels without using aerial attack and rockets. It shows that the air raid was not against bunkerers but against the people.”

FNDIC reacts

Also yesterday, President of Federated Niger Delta Ijaw Communities (FNDIC), Chief Oboko Bello, said the attack would only serve to spur them into more militant actions. He also described the aerial bombardment as “phenomenal and too severe” and urged the government to employ dialogue to resolve the Niger Delta problems once and for all.

Speaking to Vanguard in Warri yesterday on telephone, the FNDIC president said if military force was the solution to the situation, the killing of Isaac Boro, Ken Saro Wiwa and the sacking of Odi village would have helped the situation, noting: “We have not seen or heard of such magnitude of response to oil bunkering activities in the country as alleged in this case. Why is it being visited on us now? Dialogue and political solutions to our numerous problems are the best options opened to the government especially now that some measure of peace has been achieved in the region.”
Chief Bello advised President Obasanjo to tow the path of democratic principles.

We are helpless over airstrip —SHELL

Shell said yesterday it had no control over the use of its airfield in Warri by the Nigerian military as a base from which to launch air strikes.

Following the raid, a militant organisation accused the army of targeting civilians and threatened violent reprisals against Shell to punish the firm for allowing its airstrip to be used for military operations.

“Armed intervention is always a decision for the proper authorities and not for private companies such as Shell,” a Shell spokeswoman said. “As in any other part of the world, the government has a duty and an obligation to uphold the rule of law, while at the same time respecting the human rights of its people.

“Any questions about military operations and their use of airstrips during their operations in the Niger Delta should be raised with the appropriate authority,” she said.

A joint US, French and Djiboutian rescue operation searched frantically Saturday for 10 missing crew from two US Marine Corps helicopters that crashed off the coast of Djibouti.

The US military's Djibouti-based Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa headquarters said the status of the missing was unclear as was the cause of Friday's crashes but that two rescued crew were in stable condition.

"Search and rescue operations are ongoing," it said in a statement. "The status of the remaining 10 crewmembers is still unknown at this time."

"The cause of the crash is unknown at this time and an investigation into the accident is underway," it said.

The CH-53 helicopters went down around 5:30 pm (1430 GMT) Friday in the waters of the Gulf of Aden near Ras Siyuan in northern Djibouti while on a two-hour training mission around the Godoria mountain range.

The military said the weather at the time of the crashes was partly cloudy with light to variable winds and "unlimited visibility."

The choppers were part of a squadron based at the Marine Corps' New River Air Station in the southern US state of North Carolina, it said.

The two rescued crew were expected to be evacuated to the US military's Landstuhl Army Hospital in Germany on Saturday, the statement said.

One of the crew suffered a knee injury and underwent surgery at Camp Lemonier, the Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa's base, while the second suffered significant muscular and skeletal bruising and "may have inhaled contaminated sea water," it said.

Djibouti is home to France's largest overseas military base and the only US military base in Africa.

It currently hosts some 1,700 American troops and several hundred Dutch, German and Spanish soldiers participating in the US-led anti-terrorism operation known as "Enduring Freedom."

British soldiers are expected to be deployed in the near future to Djibouti, which is a key staging post at the southern end of the Red Sea on the Gulf of Aden.