ISWAP, Boko Haram fighters ‘killed’ after NAF air strikes hit Borno hideouts

Many fighters of the Islamic State of West Africa Province ( ISWAP) and Boko Haram have been reportedly killed during a series of air strikes by the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) in Borno. 

Intelligence sources in the military told Zagazola Makama, a counter-insurgency publication focused on the Lake Chad region, that the air component of Operation Hadin Kai had marked the coordinates of the terrorists’ hideouts in Marte LGA prior to the attack.

The publication added that between Sunday and Monday, the air troops bombed the identified hideouts in Chikun, Gudu and Jibularam, Kwalaram, and Arinna Ciki in the LGA.

Early assessment of the scene by the troops revealed that scores of fighters, including some of their yet-to-be-identified commanders, were killed. 

Zagazola Makama also reported that six bodies of the terrorists were sighted in Talala, Sambisa forest axis, following multiple air strikes on the groups’ camps. 

Sources within the troops told the publication that prior to the operation, NAF’s fighter jets have been hovering around Afa, Kafa, Buk, Talala, Galmasaku, Chiralia, Ajigin, Wajiroko, Sabon Gari, Gogore, Doksa Buni Yadi and Buni Gari, following intelligence that the terrorists were moving in seven gun trucks and motorcycles.

“But on sighting the terrorists within the Timbuktu Triangle, the terrorists flee from the scene and hide under nearby trees to avoid being spotted,” the publication quoted the source as saying. 

“The Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal Hassan Bala Abubakar, has directed all operational commanders to sustain the tempo of military decisiveness against the terrorists and insurgents wherever they are at this period.”