Nigeria’s defence spokesman claims troops killed 715 suspected terrorists in April

The Defence Headquarters claimed on Thursday troops operating in various theatres of operation killed 715 suspected terrorists and rescued 465 hostages in April.

The Director of Defence Media Operation, Maj.-Gen. Edward Buba, disclosed this while briefing journalists on the operations of the Armed Forces in Abuja.

He added that the troops also arrested 1,146 suspects during ambushes, raids, fighting patrols and other covert operations during the period.

Buba said several enclaves of notable terrorist leaders and commanders like Nasanda, Babaru, Kamilu Buzaru, Ali Dawud, Bakura Fallujah and Mallam Ari across North-West were bombarded and destroyed by the troops.

Also affected were the camps of Mallam Yadee in Mariga local government area of Niger State and Bello Turji’s camp in Kagara forest located between Shinkafi in Zamfara and Isa LGA in Sokoto State.

The spokesman said: “All the surviving terrorist commanders and leaders are walking corpses as we would get them, sooner than later.

READ ALSO: Nigerian troops reportedly kill 192 suspected terrorists in troubled North

“The synchronised strikes between the ground and air forces during the period under review resulted in over 715 terrorist neutralised, arrested 1,146 persons and rescued 465 kidnapped hostages.

“Furthermore, troops recovered 937 assorted weapons, 23,034 assorted ammunitions and denied the oil theft of an estimated sum over N2 billion.

In the North-East, troops of Operation Hadin Kai conducted operations into Sambisa Forest, Timbuktu Triangle and the Tumbus around the Lake Chad Region within the month.

“The operations led to the elimination of 248 terrorist, arrest of 422, and rescue of 163 kidnapped hostages while a total of 714 Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists and their families surrendered to troops.

“Items recovered seized items include 208 AK47 rifles, 34 fabricated and 45 Dane guns, 18 assorted arms, 3,672 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 2,058 rounds of 7.62mm NATO and 422 assorted ammunitions.

In the North-Central, troops of Operation Safe Haven conducted operations in several hot spots, neutralised 32 terrorists and violent extremists and arrested 148 while 35 kidnap hostages were rescued.”

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