Boko Haram leader dismisses claims of his death in new video.
"Here I am, alive. I will only die the day Allah takes my breath," Shekau said, adding that his group was "running our... Islamic caliphate" and administering strict sharia punishments.
Boko Haram has shown images of extreme violence before but the latest video shows at length graphic scenes of an amputation and a stoning to death as well as a beheading.
It also purports to show the wreckage of a Nigerian Air Force jet that went missing in the northeast on September 11. Boko Haram said its fighters shot it down but the military denied the claim.
The military announced last week that Shekau was dead and that a man who had been posing as the group's leader in the videos had been killed after fighting with troops in the far northeast.
Security analysts and the United States questioned the credibility of the military's claim.
Standing in front of three camouflaged vans and flanked by four heavily armed, masked fighters, he then speaks for 16 minutes in Arabic and the Hausa language widely spoken in northern Nigeria.
There was no indication of where or when the video was shot. Shekau appears in separate images from the violence.
- Propaganda claims -
The heavily bearded Shekau, who appeared to be the same man as those in previous clips, said the military's claim that he was dead was propaganda.
"It is propaganda that is prevalent. I have one soul. I'm an Islamic student.
"I'm
the Islamic student whose seminary you burnt... I'm not dead," he
added, apparently referring to the destruction of the group's mosque in
the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, in 2009.
There
have been two previous claims by Nigeria's security forces that Shekau
had been killed or "may be dead" but Boko Haram has later issued denials
in video messages.
Elsewhere
in the new video, the militant leader said the group had implemented
strict Islamic law in the towns that it had captured in the northeast in
recent weeks.
"We are running our caliphate, our Islamic caliphate. We follow
the Koran... We now practise the injunctions of the Koran in the land
of Allah," he said.
- Extreme violence -
The
video showed footage of a man being stoned to death for adultery,
another having his right hand cut off at the wrist for theft and a man
and a woman receiving 100 lashes for sex out of wedlock.
Crowds of men, women and children are seen watching the punishments.
There
was again no indication of when or where the images were shot but on
August 21, residents who fled the Borno town of Buni Yadi reported that
the group had carried out summary executions.
The
scenes of graphic violence are not unprecedented but come as other
groups in the wider jihadi network, particularly Islamic State militants
in Syria and Iraq, have issued similar footage.
In
a Boko Haram video obtained on August 24, footage showed the apparent
execution of about 20 men captured in the Borno town of Gwoza and two
others beaten to death with rocks and pick-axes.
On
the air force jet, Boko Haram fighters are seen apparently picking
through the wreckage of the downed Alpha aircraft and the military's
green and white logo is clearly visible.
But
air force spokesman Air Commodore Dele Alonge told AFP: "Our plane went
missing some weeks back and we are still looking for it.
"For any group to claim they shot it down is mere propaganda and rubbish."
