Troops have killed five suspected members of the Boko Haram sect during a fresh encounter in Baga town of Borno State.

The Deputy Director of Public Relations, Theatre Command Operation Lafiya Dole, Colonel Onyema Nwachukwu, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday.

According to him, a combined Special Forces comprising personnel of the Nigerian Army, Navy and the Air Force deployed in the ongoing counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency operations in northern Borno engaged the insurgents on Saturday.

The terrorists were armed with two gun trucks, a vehicle laden with Improvised Explosive Device (IED) and a suicide bomber, Colonel Nwachukwu added.

They were said to have met their Waterloo while fighting to break into the formidable defensive position of the troops.

Instead of penetrating, the Theatre Command’s spokesman disclosed that the troops inflicted “devastating man and equipment casualty” on the terrorists.

“The gallant troops responded swiftly in a fierce counter-offensive, unleashing superior and overwhelming firepower on the terrorists and neutralised five of them, including a driver and a gunner firing from a gun truck, a suicide bomber in a vehicle loaded with IED and two other terrorists,” Nwachukwu said.

He added that the fierce counterattack by the soldiers also led to the destruction of a gun truck and one IED-carrying vehicle owned by the insurgents.

The troops also recovered an anti-aircraft gun and three AK 47 Rifles belonging while they were in pursuit of some of the terrorists who fled the scene.

The insurgents were neutralised barely one month after troops engaged the terrorists in a fierce battle I Baga, an incident which led to the loss of lives on both sides.

•Sourced from a Channels TV report

Update news