Boko Haram Attack Leaves 26 Dead in Chad, Officials Say

Government officials in Chad announced Wednesday that the Boko Haram terror group had reportedly murdered 26 residents in the country over this past weekend.

Chad officials told media outlets that the terrorist group attacked villages near Lake Chad, reportedly slitting the throats of 26 residents.

"The two villages were attacked by surprise on Saturday and Sunday night. There were 13 dead in each attack," an anonymous Chadian official told Al Jazeera News this week.

The two villages attacked over the weekend include Merom, where militants slit the throats of their victims and burned homes before fleeing, and Tiskra, where militants slit the throats of residents before being chased away by village security.

This past weekend's attack on Chad is the latest carried out by the Boko Haram terror group.

In late June, two bombs hit Chad's capital of N'Djamena, killing eleven people, including five police. The blasts reportedly took place within six minutes of each other in different parts of the city.

Two weeks earlier in mid-June, a similar bomb attack killed 34 people in the country's capital. The June 15 explosion took place near a police station and a police training school.

The SITE Intelligence Group recently reported that Boko Haram took responsibility for the June 15 attacks that killed 34, saying in a statement posted to a jihadist website that two suicide bombers used explosives attached to their belts to kill the innocent citizens at the police base and training camp.

The statement by Boko Haram also pledged allegiance to the Syria-based Islamic State terror group.