KANO, Nigeria — Nigerian troops on Sunday killed 20 suspected Boko Haram Islamists in the restive north-eastern city of Maiduguri, but lost one soldier while two others were injured, a senior officer said.

"We got a report that some suspected members of Boko Haram were meeting at a particular location in Maiduguri. Our men mobilised, leading to a shootout. Twenty suspected terrorists were killed while a soldier died in the operation and two others sustained injuries," commander Victor Ebhaleme told AFP.

He said no arrests were made during the raid on the hideout in the Gwaidamgari area of Maiduguri, a hotbed of Boko Haram activity.

The Islamist group is responsible for deadly gun and bomb attacks in some parts of Nigeria — particularly in the northeast, the center, and the capital Abuja — which have claimed more than 1,000 lives since mid-2009.