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Sustained air strikes on terrorists’ enclaves in Northwest Nigeria by Nigerian Air Force (NAF) aircraft under Operation Hadarin Daji (OPHD) have continued to yield positive results as they neutralize and eliminate key terrorists’ leaders and their foot soldiers.
According to military intelligence from the Region, the air strikes by NAF aircraft at Ilela in Safana Local Government Area (LGA) of Katsina State on 30 January 2021 have led to the elimination of several terrorists under the camps of notorious terrorists’ leaders including Gwaska Dankarami and Alhaji Abdulkarami.
This occurred when NAF platforms obliterated a rocky cave on the outskirts of Ilela Village, where the terrorists usually retire to and use as safe haven after carrying out attacks on innocent citizens.
Upon receiving reports of incessant terrorists’ attacks on villages around Safana LGA, especially in Ilela Village where about 12 persons were recently killed and others chased out of the village, the air component of Operation Hadarin Daji deployed Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft to unravel the modus operandi of the terrorists.
Footages by the ISR platform revealed significant terrorists’ activities in some rocky hills about 1.5 Km Southwest of Ilela and South of Rubu Villages.
Further scrutiny of the footages revealed armed terrorists on 19 motorcycles riding along multiple tracks leading into a cave within the rocky hills.
It was thus evident that footages corroborated earlier Intel from other sources around the location of the rocky cave. Accordingly, the Air Component of OPHD dispatched a fighter jet and helicopter gunship in an air interdiction mission to exterminate and infuse maximum casualty on the bandits as well as destroy their enclaves.
While overhead the terrorists’ rocky enclaves and having spotted several terrorists and their motorcycles within the rocky hill, the aircraft engaged the location with bombs in successive passes.
The aftermath of the strikes revealed the location engulfed in flames with not less than 43 dead bodies of terrorists counted within the vicinity including the body of Alhaji Shingy (brother of late Alhaji Auta killed by air strikes on 1 January 2022) while some survivors were seen fleeing in disarray to other locations around the rocky areas.
Hence, another airstrike was carried out to eliminate the remnants of terrorists with a high degree of accuracy.
Reports from the locals near the locations substantiated that several fighters inspired by terrorists’ leaders Dankarami and Alhaji Abdulkarimu suffered maximum casualties with their logistics and motorcycles demolished during the air strikes.
Credible sources also reaffirmed that the eliminated terrorists were indeed the same terrorists who have been launching series of attacks around Safana and Dan Musa LGAs of Katsina State.
When contacted, the NAF Director of Public Relations and Information, Air Commodore Edward Gabkwet stated that strikes against terrorist elements in the entire Northern Nigeria Region particularly in the Northeast and Northwest will continue for as long as terrorists and their likes continue to constitute a menace to peace loving Nigerians in these areas.
He also noted that with the level of coordination and cooperation among the services and other security agencies, Nigerians should not be surprised with the high level of successes being recorded through precision strikes aimed at eliminating key terrorists and their foot soldiers.
Air Commodore Gabkwet went on to thank Nigerians for the increased level of cooperation being witnessed by the NAF and the services, which has also translated to the gains recorded by the military in recent times.
He went further to reassure Nigerians of the commitment of the air component alongside the Land Component and other security agencies towards restoring normalcy in the Northwest and Northeast Region.
Source: PRNigeria
