By Kamil Opeyemi
The troops of the 21 Armoured Brigade, Operation Hadin Kai of the Nigerian Army, have neutralized scores of Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists and recovered a large cache of arms and ammunition in Sambisa Forest, Borno State.
The success recorded was as a result of determination by Nigerian Army to clear the North East of terrorism.
Announcing this in a statement on Monday, Director Army Public Relations, Onyema Nwachukwu said the troops in collaboration with the Air Component Command and Nigerian Army Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Command conducted deep operations into the Sambisa forest around Ukuba general areas under the guidance of the Theatre Command.
According to him, huge cache of arms and ammunition believed to be the largest cache so far in the armoury of the insurgents were recovered during the operations.
Other items captured include several RPG 7 tubes, RPG bombs, Mercedes Benz truck, Motorcycles, motar tubes, shoulder grenade launchers, motar bombs, 122 mm bombs, several PG42 grenades, large cache of ammunitions of different calibres, hand grenades, IED making materials, AK-47s, SMGs, grenades rifles and several other hardwares.
“Troops encountered several IEDs enroute but were able to carefully detonate all without any casualties and have since continued to project force to other suspected terrorists locations in the ongoing onslaught,” he said
Commending the troops for their gallantry, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Faruk Yahaya, urged them not to relent until terrorism and other criminalities are brought to an end in the Northeastern region.
“The troops also greatly appreciate the locals and well meaning Nigerians for their prayers and support that have contributed to the successes being recorded in the war against the terrorists in the North East,” Onyema added