Boko Haram/ISWAP targets hit in Operation Hail Storm, many killed

By Sumaila Ogbaje/Abuja

The Air Task Force of Operation Lafiya Dole has hit Boko Haram/Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists’ hideouts and killed many fighters in the Lake Chad, and Sambisa forest in Borno.

The Coordinator, Defence Media Operations, Maj.-Gen. John Enenche, in a statement on Friday, said the air strikes were launched on Sept. 22 under a subsidiary operation tagged ‘’Operation Hail Storm’’.

Enenche said the air interdiction was aimed at taking out identified Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists in the North East.

He explained that one of the targets was located at Bula Sabo on the fringes of the Sambisa forest, identified as a settlement used as dwelling place by some terrorist commanders.

According to him, the task force dispatched Nigerian Air Force (NAF) fighter jets and helicopter gunships, which scored devastating hits on the target buildings, including a logistics facility.

“In the same vein, Dole, which is located in the Yale-Kokiwa axis near Dikwa, was targeted because the settlement was being used by the terrorists as a venue to plan and launch attacks against locations in the surrounding areas.

“The NAF attack aircraft similarly engaged the location, inflicting heavy damage on the insurgents’ structures and neutralising several fighters,’’ he said.