Abuja – WAM, agencies
Nigeria announced yesterday that it had eliminated 27 militants and rescued 8 kidnapping victims over the past 48 hours in coordinated operations in the northeastern state of Borno and the central state of Nasarawa.
The Nigerian army said in a statement that during the past 48 hours, air force units carried out precision sorties targeting terrorist strongholds in the Tumbuns area of Borno State, confirming that 27 militants were killed.
It noted that in a separate incident near Kareto, army forces foiled a kidnapping attempt and successfully rescued 6 civilians without any casualties, while 2 other kidnapping victims were rescued after their abductors fled upon seeing the advancing troops in Nasarawa State.
An intelligence report indicated that an attack carried out by militants suspected of belonging to a militant group targeted by US air strikes in December resulted in the deaths of 20 people in northwestern Nigeria.
According to Agence France-Presse, a confidential UN security report stated that extremists from the little-known