Military kill 42 bandits and capture 96 in North Central and North West

42 bandits, terrorists, and other criminals were killed by military personnel during the past two weeks in a variety of operations in the North Central and North Western regions.

At the twice-weekly press conference on military operations, Maj.-Gen. Musa Danmadami, Director of Defence Media Operations, disclosed the information on Thursday in Abuja.

Danmadami said that 13 individuals were detained by the soldiers in Kogi’s Irekpeni village on the Lokoja-Kabba-Okene Road.

He said that a mobile phone found by the troops included the phone numbers of four suspected ISWAP terrorists who were on the security forces’ watch list.

He continued by saying that seven kidnappers’ informants and accomplices had been captured in Nasarawa Eggon Local Government Area of Nasarawa State as a result of a tip.

He claims that at that time, forces in the two zones also detained 86 suspected criminals and freed nine abducted citizens.

Danmadami said that in the North West, soldiers from Operations Hadarin Daji and other operations killed 38 bandits, detained 10, and freed 24 abducted hostages.

Additionally, according to him, the forces found 20 AK-47 rifles, 92 rounds of 7.62 NATO, 894 rounds of 7.62mm special, 2 PKT guns, 28 AK-47 magazines, eight rounds of 9mm ammunition, 83 rounds of 7.62 x 54mm special, five dane guns, and three IEDs.

“Other goods include 34 livestock, 10 boafeng radios, 19 motorcycles, and 10 mobile phones.

In addition, the air component carried out an air interdiction operation targeting a terrorist leader’s hideout in the Zurmi Local Government Area of Zamfara between June 2 and June 6 while keeping an eye out for terrorist activity.

“As a result, missiles were used to hit the objective, killing many terrorists.

Additionally, on June 4, a similar operation was conducted in the local government areas of Shinkafi in Zamfara and the local government areas of Batsari, Danmusa, and Jibia in Katsina State as a result of intelligence of terrorists assembling at these areas.

“As a result, rockets were fired at the target areas, and several terrorists were neutralised in the air strikes,” he continued.

(NAN)