Published on: 04/23/2022 – 20:35Modified on: 04/23/2022 – 20:43 Three police officers were killed on Saturday by armed men in an attack on a police station. The violent action was claimed by jihadists linked to the Islamic State (IS) group in Kogi State, central Nigeria. Jihadist assailants stormed the Adavi town police station on Saturday, sparking a fierce firefight with duty officers, according to state police spokesman William Ovye Aya. “The (police) command lost three of its officers during the exchange of fire,” he added. The attackers managed to escape despite gunshot wounds, but efforts are underway “to apprehend them and bring them to justice”, added William Ovye Aya. The Islamic State in West Africa (Iswap) group claimed responsibility for the attack. “Caliphate soldiers attacked a police station” in the Kogi area, the group said in a statement on Telegram, saying the attack left five people dead. It was the third attack claimed by Iswap this week in states relatively far from its Lake Chad strongholds in the northeast of the country. On Wednesday, six people died and 16 others were injured in an explosion at a bar in the town of Iware, in Taraba state (northeast). On Friday evening, another drinking establishment was targeted in the same area by an explosion which injured 11 people, according to local police. Kogi State has been the target of attacks on several occasions, sometimes spectacular by criminal gangs and jihadist fighters. In September 2021, assailants entered a prison in Kabba, freeing more than 200 inmates, according to prison authorities. Iswap was born out of a split with Boko Haram in 2016. Affiliated with IS, Iswap is become the dominant jihadist group in northeast Nigeria since the death of rival Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau in May 2021 in a clash with Iswap fighters. The jihadists usually step up their attacks during Ramadan , the holy month of Muslims. The conflict that started 13 years ago in northeastern Nigeria between the authorities and Boko Haram, then other armed Islamist groups, has claimed the lives of 40,000 people and pushed two million others to flee their homes, according to the UN. With AFP