Emerging report revealed that over 30 Soldiers have been
killed in a battle with boko haram insurgents, at Zari, in Borno State, about
30 kilometers from Damasak, the Headquarters of Mobbar Local Government Area in
the State.
Although, Army sources gave the number of Soldiers killed as
30, while 20 were said to have sustained serious wounds, the Civilian Joint
Task Force, JTF, and other sources, disclosed that an estimated 40 Soldiers were
killed in total.
The sources said that the insurgents sacked the entire
village.
An Army source confirmed on Sunday morning, that troops
suffered heavy casualties, and that the insurgents carted away with weapons
abandoned by the fleeing troops.
After a gun battle that lasted for a few hours, the Army
source revealed that the Soldiers fled into bushes, before a fighter jet
arrived to save the situation.
“We lost many Soldiers in the duel, and many of them are
still missing, because they are yet to return to the Damasak base. We equally
lost weapons to the attackers”, the source noted.
In a statement, the Nigerian Military confirmed that the
troops fought the boko haram “insurgents… on rampage to loot the community and
extort money from villagers.
“Troops… have successfully routed boko haram insurgents, in
an encounter that ensued yesterday evening, at Zari village”, the Military said
in the statement.
It did not speak of Military casualties, and the raid on the
base, but maintained that “several boko haram fighters and weapons” were
destroyed in the fight.
Boko haram has intensified attacks on Military targets in
recent months.
The attacks appear to undermine repeated claims by the
Military that boko haram has been defeated.
No comments:
Post a Comment