KATSINA  (AFP) – Gunmen have shot dead a soldier in the northeastern city of Maiduguri where the military this week embarked on an arms mop-up exercise to curb attacks by radical Islamists, police said Friday.

The soldier from a special military unit deployed in the city was shot dead while on duty late Wednesday outside the city’s main market, Simeon Midenda, Borno state police commissioner said.

The soldier who was on patrol was shot several times “by yet-to-be identified gunmen … around 11:00pm (2200 GMT),” Midenda said.

The attackers are believed to have trailed him and shot him while he was alone, he said.

The police chief declined to speculate on likely suspects in the killing which resembled previous attacks by Boko Haram Islamists on police and soldiers, community and religious leaders as well as politicians.

On Tuesday soldiers began a house-to-house search for weapons in the city and surrounding towns and villages following the expiration of an October 31 deadline for residents to turn in their weapons.

A military spokesman in Maiduguri had said the arms mop up was aimed at stopping the near daily attacks by the Boko Haram sect which has been behind series of deadly bomb and shooting attacks in the city in recent months.

The sect claimed responsibility for the August 26 bombing of the UN building in Abuja that killed 24 people.