Scores of Boko Haram militants feared killed in Borno operation

BARELY 12 hours after foiling moves by the Boko Haram insurgents to attack Maiduguri metropolis, troops of  the 7 Division of the Nigerian Army and vigilante youths again on Sunday evening clashed with the terrorists at Tungushe village, killing scores of the militants, destroying their vehicles as well as seizing arms and ammunitions belonging to them.

Tungushe is a farming settlement  on the Maiduguri-Monguno road which is 35-kilometre north of the Maimalari military cantonment.

An eyewitness and escapee told The Guardian on Monday in Maiduguri said insurgents’ target was the barracks which houses over 1,000 soldiers and military hardwares.

“I was shocked and terrified by the insurgents’ ‘tactical and strategic’ attempted onslaughts on military formations and posts in Maiduguri. The insurgents sneaked into the village at 5:00pm on Sunday and engaged the soldiers in a fierce gun battle, throwing explosives and Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPGs); but were successfully repelled by troops and killed hundreds of them.

“A lot of insurgents’ corpses littered the streets and bushes of the village, as the military seriously dealt with them. The military has done a good job,” Ibrahim stated.

 He continued: “if the soldiers will maintain this tempo, I believe very soon, the Boko Haram  insurgency will end as they were all defeated in all the recent attacks, while Camerounian and Chadian troops were also doing a good job which is worthy of commendations.”

 A military source also told The Guardian on Monday that besides the Sunday evening village repulsion, over 100 suspected terrorists had been killed in an operation that lasted for over four hours.