About 12 soldiers were missing after militants launched an attack in Nigeria's southeastern Bayelsa State, a Lagos-based newspaper quoted a source in the Nigerian Navy here on Tuesday.
The missing soldiers are units of the government-run Joint Task Force (JTF) operating in the Niger Delta, which is entrenched with several militants groups engaged in previous kidnappings and hostage takings.
Omale Ochagwuba, spokesman for the JTF, said that the army could not confirm if the soldiers were killed or abducted.
The militants were thought to attack the soldiers in reprisal for the killing of nine people last Tuesday at a flow station in the coastal southern Ijaw Local Government Area.
The Nigerian Agip Oil Company, whose Ogbainbiri flow station was seized by the militants, also confirmed the attack, but said that 28 people, including 11 soldiers, were abducted during the attack.
