The Nigerian Army says the joint troops of Operation Hadin Kai (OPHK) killed scores of Boko Haram/Islamic States West African Province (ISWAP) terrorists in recent encounters in Borno.

Director, Army Public Relations, Brig.-Gen. Onyema Nwachukwu, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday in Abuja.

The army announced that the troops had on Saturday morning observed the movement of six gun trucks within the Sambisa Forest general area, which were subsequently located at a settlement near Yuwe.

It said 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.

According to the statement, more than 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. The strikes, which were 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,” the army said.

The army also disclosed that the combat aircrew located another set of four gun trucks about six kilometres southwest of Bama as the aircraft retreated to base after the air interdiction.

The aircrew immediately relayed the coordinates of the location of the gun trucks to troops of the land component, and the land forces promptly engaged the location with artillery fire bombardment and killed the insurgents, said the army.

The joint operations conducted by both the air and land components, with the support of other security agencies under OPHK, again underscored the importance of synergy and cooperation in the fight against terrorism and insurgency, added the statement.

“Troops of OPHK remain resolute and unshaken in their effort to bring the insurgents to their knees,” said the army.

(NAN)