Scores of ISWAP terrorists met their Waterloo at the weekend in their enclave in Sambisa Forest as Nigerian Air Force, NAF, military jets rained bombs on the hideout .
It was not clear whether their leader Fiya Ba Yuram escaped the bombardment. Fiya Ba Yuram, a notorious terrorist, is the current Leader of ISWAP at Sambisa forest. He took over the leadership of the ISWAP insurgent group, following the killing of Boko Haram Leader, Abubakar Shekau, last year.
The raid at Fiya Ba Yuram’s enclave followed a credible and actionable intelligence by the Air Component of Operation of Hadin Kai, which revealed that terrorists were gathering for an undisclosed mission.
An intelligence military source, told PRNigeria that air strikes were then authorized and carried out on the location, following the intelligence.
He said: “An assessment of the location after the strikes revealed it to be successful, though it remained unconfirmed if Fiya Ba Yuram was among the terrorists neutralized in the strikes”.
Meanwhile, similar air strikes were also undertaken in the Tunbuns near Lake Chad after suspected terrorists’ activities were observed in the area believed to be a training camp for ISWAP fighters, PRNigeria also gathered from another military intelligence officer.
“The targets were subsequently acquired and engulfed in flames all after. The aftermath of the airstrike revealed that pandemonium broke out as the remnant of surviving terrorists took cover under nearby trees which were later struck by the aircraft,” the officer disclosed.
When contacted, the NAF Director of Public Relations and Information, Air Commodore Edward Gabkwet confirmed the strikes stating that, “Yes strikes were carried out on some specific targets in the Tunbuns and Sambisa with varying degrees of successes recorded. The NAF won’t however be drawn into the details of those neutralized.”
PRNigeria