US Wary of Reports Boko Haram's Leader Is Dead 

WASHINGTON - The United States is not ready to declare the leader of Nigeria's Boko Haram terror group dead, despite reports from the region of his demise.

"The United States has not yet been able to independently verify these reports and continues to monitor the situation," a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council told VOA Friday, when asked about the fate of longtime Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau. Reports that Shekau was dead first appeared on social media earlier this week, saying that he died during a confrontation with fighters from the rival Islamic State-West Africa terror group in northeast Nigeria's Sambisa Forest, known to be Shekau's base of operations.  Some of the accounts said Shekau killed himself, either by shooting himself or by detonating a suicide vest after he was captured and told to pledge allegiance to the IS terror group.