have been killed in a recent air strike carried out by Nigeria Air Force fighter jets on locations believed to be hideouts of the deadly insurgents, an official said.
According to a statement issued from the Directorate of Public Relations and Information of the Nigeria Air Force, the strike took place on April 28 in a village called Mangosum in Borno State.
The incident was not reported until Tuesday when the Director of Air Force Public Relations and Information, Olatokunbo Adesanya, an air commodore, mentioned it in a terse statement.
Mr. Adesanya said the attack was effected following a NAF intelligence.
He said while a large number of suspected Boko Haram leaders were killed during the raid, troops also recovered a large cache of arms and ammunition at the attacked location.
“At dawn on 28 April 2017, the Nigerian Air Force Component of Operation LAFIYA DOLE conducted an air interdiction mission on some remnants of the Boko Haram Terrorists in a village 3.42 km Northeast of Mangosum”, said Air Commodore Adesanya.
“On the previous day, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) had successfully provided air cover to troops of 27 Task Force Battalion thereby enabling them to repel an attack by the Boko Haram Terrorists.
“Subsequently, a NAF Intelligence, Surveillance and “Reconnaissance aircraft trailed the remnants of the insurgents that attacked the Battalion to a village near Mangosum, following which the NAF conducted the air interdiction mission with two Alpha Jet and one F-7Ni aircraft.
“Battle Damage Assessment conducted after the strike showed that several leaders of the Boko Haram Terrorist Organization and their followers were killed during the attacks.
“In addition, a sizeable cache of weapons and equipment was destroyed. With the successful air interdiction, the Nigerian Air Force was able to frustrate yet another attempt by the remnants of the Boko Haram Terrorists to regroup in the Sambisa general area”, he said.
