NAF jets kill 49 Boko Haram fighters in Borno, Kaduna

The Air Task Force (ATF), Operation Hadin Kai (OPHK), has killed no less than 49 Boko Haram terrorists in their Sambisa Forest hideouts in Borno State.

Multiple airstrikes by two Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Super Tucano fighter jets targeted the terrorists’ camps.

A counter-insurgency expert, Zagazola Makama, stated, yesterday, in Maiduguri, that the insurgents’ camps were located in Gargash, Minna and Gazuwa communities of Bama Local Council.

According to him, Thursday’s multiple airstrikes targeted the terrorists’ moving truck in Gargash, killing all the occupants.

He added that after the killing of several Boko Haram fighters, others fled with gunshot wounds.

“On August 31, another air strike was conducted in Gazuwa after intelligence revealed large presence of the terrorists,” he said, adding that they engaged in illegal transactions.

The ATF detailed its fighter jets to attack the two camps, killing scores of them and destroyed their weapons.

“About 29 terrorists were killed in Gazuwa. A truck with four fighters were also neutralised at Gargash, while 16 other fighters met their waterloo in Minna,” he said, noting that the Air force, in concert with land forces, will sustain its offensive against the terrorists in the North East.

The Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Isiaka Amao, had charged NAF operational commanders to “show no mercy” to the terrorists hibernating in the forest.

Amao, therefore, directed the ATF personnel to deploy maximum firepower against the terrorists posing security threats in the country.

The joint military onslaught against the terrorists has continued to yield results, as it smoked out some of the criminals from their hideouts in Alhaji Isiaka and Kuduru in Kaduna State and Amchile and Gargash in Borno.

The Guardian gathered that the sustained military bombardment has been turning the tide against the criminals.

A source said: “In continuation of its intensive air operations on terrorists and their enclaves, the air component of Operation Whirl Punch (OPWP) on August 30, 2022, conducted air interdiction missions against identified terrorists hideouts at Alhaji Isiaka and Kuduru in Igabi Local Council of Kaduna State.

“The strikes were successful, as 14 terrorists were eliminated with several others injured. Similar strikes were undertaken at Udawa along Kaduna–Birnin Gwari Road in Kaduna after receiving intelligence of cow rustling in the area. On receipt of the distress call, NAF aircraft were immediately scrambled to the location where they neutralised several terrorists on bikes guiding the rustled herds.”

The state government said that troops of Operation Forest Sanity (OPFS) made further gains as they continued fighting patrols and clearance operations in the Birnin Gwari area.

The Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, stated, yesterday: “In an operational feedback to the
Kaduna State Government, it was reported that the troops embarked on the clearance patrol along the Birnin Gwari–Doka–Sabon
Layi–Kuriga–Maganda–Farin Ruwa road.

“The troops made contact with the bandits at Farin Ruwa. Two bandits were neutralised in the encounter, as the criminal elements were forced to withdraw under the troops’ superior firepower.”