N’DJAMENA, Nigeria: Boko Haram militants attacked Chadian Army positions in Gambaru, a town in northeastern Nigeria, on Wednesday, and were beaten back, Chadian military sources said.

Chadian troops are in Gambaru as part of a regional offensive against Boko Haram, whose militants have staged several cross-border attacks over the past week.

“We knew they were going to attack us. We were waiting. The battle didn’t last long. They fled,” one military source told Reuters.

The source said eight Chadian soldiers were wounded, three out of 14 Boko Haram vehicles were destroyed, and one was seized. There was no word on whether any Boko Haram fighters had been killed or wounded.

Separately, Nigeria’s military pledged on Wednesday not to get involved in party politics, after concerns grew about its role in pushing for the country’s presidential election to be delayed by six weeks.

Defense spokesman Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade noted “the palpable tension being generated ... with regards to the roles of the Nigerian military in the ongoing political activities and recent developments, especially in relation to electioneering.”

“It is important to reassure Nigerians that the military will remain professional, apolitical and non-partisan in all operations ... related to elections,” he said in a statement.

The military faced accusations of interference when chairman of the electoral commission Attahiru Jega revealed that the office of the National Security Adviser had written a letter to him saying that unless he delayed the Feb. 14 election, it could not guarantee his security.

There have also been reports in the local press that the military colluded with the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to try to influence the election in Ekiti state in May, a claim the military has not directly commented on.

Nigeria’s decision to delay the poll on the advice of security forces was a worrying echo for some of the annulment of 1993’s democratic vote by a military government.

President Goodluck Jonathan’s PDP had pushed for a delay, while his main opponent Muhammadu Buhari of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) had urged the vote go ahead on time, arguing that a six-year old insurgency was hardly going to be solved in six weeks.

But the PDP also argued that the commission was not ready because millions of voters had not picked up their ID cards.