Over 30 terrorists have been killed following a raid by joint troops of Operation Hadin Kai (OPHK) carrying out onslaughts on terrorists’ enclaves in the North East.
The spokesman for the Nigerian Army, Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu, who disclosed this in a statement on Sunday said the raid was part of intensified operations by the military in the region.
“In the early hours of Saturday 30 October 2021, the vigilant troops observed the movement of six gun trucks within Sambisa Forest general area, which were subsequently located at a settlement near Yuwe,” General Nwachukwu narrated.
“The trucks later moved to a remote location, where they were joined by other terrorist elements, in what seemed like a convergence for a meeting.
“Over 50 Boko Haram/ ISWAP fighters were observed to have gathered at the meeting. Having clearly identified the terrorists’ hideout, the Air Component of OPHK immediately dispatched two aircraft to conduct air interdiction on the location.”
He added that the strikes carried out under cover of darkness were successful and devastating, as battle damage assessment corroborated by local sources revealed that over 37 Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists were neutralised while several of them reportedly suffered varying degrees of injury.
General Nwachukwu further explained that as the aircraft retreated to base after the air interdiction, the combat air crew located another set of four gun trucks – about six kilometres south-west of Bama.
“The air crew immediately relayed the coordinates of the location of the gun trucks to troops of the Land Component at Bama, who promptly engaged the location with artillery fire bombardment, neutralising the insurgents’ gun trucks,” he said.
According to the army spokesman, the successful joint operations conducted by both the air and land components of the army, with the support of other security agencies under Operation Hadin Kai, again underscore the importance of synergy and cooperation in the fight against terrorism and insurgency.
He asserted that troops of OPHK remained resolute and unshaken in their effort to bring the insurgents to their knees.