Military kills 180 terrorists, arrests 204 in seven days

The Defence Headquarters has said that the operations of the Armed Forces in the last one week have resulted in the killing of more than 180 terrorists, arrest of 204 others and the rescue of 234 kidnapped victims.

The Director of Defence Media Operations, Major-Gen. Edward Buba, in a statement on Friday, said the operations involved land and air interdictions across the theatres of operation.

Buba said the troops also recovered 46 assorted weapons and 148 assorted ammunition, comprising 30 AK47 rifles, two Josef Magnum pump action guns, one double barrel gun and two single barrel guns.

Others included 12 locally-made pistols, 13 dane guns, one hand grenade, nine locally-made rifles, three RPG chargers, two locally-made hand grenades 120 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 364 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 54 live cartridges, 11 rounds of empty cases of 7.62mm special ammo, 32 magazines, 34 vehicles, 64 mobile phones, 47 motorcycles, N1.5 million, amongst other items.

He said the troops of Operation Hadin Kai neutralised 19 terrorists, arrested 52 and rescued 134 kidnapped victims in the North-East during the week, adding that the troops recovered six AK47 rifles, 58 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, seven live cartridges, three vehicles, eight mobile phones, three motorcycles, one bicycle and two camouflage magazine carrier jackets.

The Defence Director explained further that the troops conducted fighting patrols to Gulani Local Government Area of Yobe where they arrested kidnappers and illegal miners, while they also discovered and detonated IEDs in Monguno, Mafa and Gwoza Local Government Areas of Borno, and neutralised suspected ISWAP/JAS terrorists in Madagali in Adamawa and Maiduguri Municipal Council areas in Borno State.

He added that a total of 91 terrorists comprising 13 adult males, 35 adult females, and 43 children surrendered to troops between November 22 and 28.