No fewer than 100 terrorists have been eliminated by in-air interdictions carried out on the border between Niger and Zamfara states by the Nigerian Air Force, the Defence Headquarters has disclosed.
This development was announced by the Director, Defence Media Operations, Maj.-Gen. Edward Buba, on Thursday in Abuja while giving an update on military operations across the country in the previous week.
Displaying the battle damage assessment pictures of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) air interdictions, he said the operations also decimated many insurgents in other parts of the country.
Buba said the military in a surgical operation targeted at the residence of an ISWAP terrorist commander in Niger, made several arrests and discoveries.
He said that other operations conducted in the last one week by troops in various theatres, neutralised 73 terrorists and led to the arrest of 182 others.
According to him, the troops also arrested 14 suspected oil thieves and rescued 68 hostages in the South-South, as well as denied oil thieves an estimated N1.212 billion from the illicit business.
“Furthermore, troops recovered 119 assorted weapons and 1,537 assorted ammunition.
“The breakdown is as follows: one GPMG, three PKT guns, 39 AK47 rifles, five locally fabricated rifles, one locally made double barrel gun, one Beretta pistol, four locally made pistols, five RPG bombs and five pump action guns.
Also recovered were one short gun, one hand grenade, two dane guns, one AK47 rifle loaded with 14 rounds of 7.62mm special, and one locally made pistol loaded with live cartridges.
“Others are 586 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, a bag containing 287 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 389 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 141 rounds of 7.62mm special (belted) ammo, 12 rounds of 9mm ammo.
”Also, 113 rounds of live cartridges, 25 empty magazines, 13 vehicles, 3 motorcycles, 10 mobile phones, 2 HH radios, one Boafeng radio and the sum of N3.3 million amongst other items,” he said.
