Airstrikes by the Nigerian Air Force, NAF, has killed three top bandit leaders and scores of fighters at bandit leader Bello Turji’s camp in Kagara forest, in Sokoto State.
The airstrikes were conducted a few hours after the terrorists carried out a reprisal attack on a unit of Civilian Joint Task Force at Forward Operating Base Isa, in response to the killing of seven bandits and recovery of seven AK-47 rifles, four motorcycles and other items.
Eight Civilian Joint Task Force troops paid the supreme price during a gun battle with the bandits.
However, a counter insurgency expert and security analyst in the Lake Chad Region, Zagazola Makama, said acting on intelligence on withdrawal of the attackers towards the axis of Shinkafi, the air component immediately dispatched aircraft to track down the terrorists.
Sources said that the terrorists were trailed to Kagara Forest under a mango tree between Shinkafi and Isa.
Consequently, NAF aircraft attacked the camp in multiple waves, leading to the instant obliteration of scores of the terrorists.
The fleeing bandits were intercepted and mopped up by the ground troops in an ambush at Makwaruwa village in Sabon Birni of Isa LGA.
“Battle damage assessment indicated that some top bandits like KACHALLAH UBAN DABA, DAN JANGERU and DOGO NA HANTS where killed, while 13 bandits sustained various degrees of injuries. Bello Turji reportedly escaped the attack.”
Zagazola understands that the wounded bandits were sneaked into Kagara and are receiving treatment in a primary school.
The sources said that shortly after the encounter, the surviving angry fighters stormed Rijiya Malladan and Harin Shalla in Isa, where they set the villages in flames and destroyed food items.
They were, however, pushed back by the Joint troops of Operation Hadarin Daji in collaboration with government backed militia, otherwise known as Yan sa Kai.