Nigeria loses 3 soldiers, as army onslaught kills 75 Boko Haram insurgents

The Nigerian Military on Tuesday said its troops of Operation Fire Ball have killed 75 Boko Haram and ISWAP fighters in the last week in Northeast.

The military however announced that three soldiers including an officer were killed and four others wounded during the encounters with the terrorists.

Brigadier General Benard Onyeuko, Director, Defence Media Operations in a statement in Maiduguri, informed that the wounded soldiers have since been evacuated to a military medical facility and are currently responding to treatment.

The director also disclosed that a cache of arms and ammunition were equally recovered during the operation in the last week.

According to him, “4 x Gun Trucks, 1 x Bedford Truck, 3 x Anti Aircraft guns, were destroyed, while 1 x Gun Trucks, 4 x Anti Aircraft guns, 1x PKT gun, 4 x General Purpose Machine Guns,1 x Automatic Grenade Launcher, 1 x Dushka Gun, 1 x Light Machine Gun, 48 x AK 47 Rifles, 1x Locally made Pistol and 10 x AK 47 magazines were recovered.”

Others are; “1 x 36 Hand Grenade, 567 rounds of 7.62mm Special ammunition, 448 rounds of 12.7mm ammunition, 50 x Rocket Propelled Grenade Bombs, 17 locally manufactured rounds, 3 shells for making Improvised Explosive Device, 1 x Smoke Grenade and 2 x belts of PKT rounds. Other assorted nonlethal items were also captured from the criminals.”

Onyeuko noted that Operation Fire Ball, a subsidiary of Operation Lafiya Dole has recorded tremendous success within the short period from its existence with the last week of the preceding month proving to be the deadliest against the criminals.

“The troops in the various Sectors of the Theatre have continued to carry out their tasks relentlessly. The successes so far achieved wouldn’t have been possible without the sacrifice, commitment, and gallantry exhibited by the well-motivated troops some of whom have paid the supreme sacrifice.

“Within this period, the troops have carried out aggressive clearance operations, ambushes, robust day and night patrols in order to finally decimate the remnants of the Boko Haram/ISWAP criminals,” he said.

He, therefore, commended the troops for their resilience, doggedness, and commitment exhibited since the beginning of the Operation and encouraged them not to rest on their oars but build on the successes recorded so far.

“The entire populace of the North East region are hereby assured of the Nigerian military high command determination to finally rout the remnants of BHT/ISWAP criminals from their enclaves in this zone”, he added.