Troops kill many Boko Haram terrorists in ambush, recover weapons

THE Nigerian Army claimed early Monday that its troops of Operation Lafiya Dole, in the North East, killed many Boko Haram terrorists in ambush at the early hours of Sunday.

Also, its counterpart, the Nigerian Air Force said it struck some buildings occupied by the terrorists in a bomb raid, killing many terrorists.

The claims of the two successful operations against the terrorists were contained in separate statements released early Monday by the spokesmen of the organizations.

The Army, in the statement by Brigadier General Sani Usman, Director Army Public Relations, said the troops of 151 Battalion, 21 Brigade carried out the ambush against the terrorists at the early hours of Sunday 10th September 2017.

The successful ambush, he explained, was on suspected Boko Haram terrorists crossing point at Bocost along Ngurosoye -Bama road, Borno State.

“The troops neutralized a large number of the Boko Haram terrorists, while other terrorists sustained gun shot wounds.

“The troops recovered the following items from the terrorists; one AK 47 rifle with the registration number 1029, one AK 47 magazine, 60 rounds of 7.62mm Special, three bicycles, four empty jerricans, a cutlass and the cash sum of five thousand and six hundred naira (N5, 600.00k) only.

The Nigerian Air Force, on its part, bombing of the terrorists buildings resulting in the deaths of a large number of them was in furtherance of the recently commenced Operation Ruwan Wuta in the North East.

A statement by the Director of Public Relations and Information,DOPRI, Nigerian Air Force, Air Commodore Olatukunbo Adesanya, read:”On 7 September, 2017, the Nigerian Air Force, NAF, conducted air interdiction on structures with two hoisted Boko Haram Terrorists, BHT Organization flags in Zanari, a known location with significant BHT presence at the northern fringes of Borno State bordering Lake Chad.

“Quite a number of BHTs had earlier been spotted, from a NAF Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance platform, entering the buildings apparently for meetings.

” The F-7Ni and the Alpha Jet aircraft were detailed to attack the target.

” Overhead the location, the target was acquired and engaged by the two aircraft, in rapid succession.

“Subsequent Battle Damage Assessment revealed that the targeted structures went up in flames, killing its occupants.”

The statement explained that the objective of Operation Ruwan Wuta, was to further degrade the capability of the Boko Haram terrorists, “thereby preventing them from regrouping to cause havoc for our surface forces.”

“The operation also aims at softening the ground for our surface forces to subsequently move in and conduct mopping up operations,” the Nigerian Air Force further explained.