While fighting off terrorists in the Abadam local government area of Borno State, three soldiers were killed and ten others suffered injuries of varying severity when their convoy was ambushed by the terrorist organisation known as the Islamic State of the West African Province, ISWAP.
It was learned that on Sunday, as the troops advanced toward the ISWAP camp in Tunbum Reza as part of a clearance operation against the terror group, they came under attack by a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED). The troops were members of Sector 3 and Sector 4 MultiNational Joint Task Force (MNJTF).
Intelligence information made available to newsmen and obtained by Zagazola Makama, a counterinsurgency expert and security analyst in the Lake Chad region, the joint troops successfully reacted with superior firepower and thwarted the ambush.
According to the sources, one of the VBIED struck a Hilux truck and the other struck an MRAP that belonged to Nigérienne Republic troops in Sector 4 MNJTF.
The sources claimed that although the precise number had not yet been established, terrorists also sustained considerable losses.
“This attack comes in less than 24 hours after the troops thwarted a similar attack in Arege resulting in the killing of 10 ISWAP terrorists and the destruction of their three vehicles.
“The ISWAP terrorists made an audacious attempt to infiltrate the advancing troops’ harbor using a Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED), but was instantly naturalized,” he said.
The wounded personnel were evacuated for treatment.
The ongoing operation by troops of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) nicknamed Operation HARBIN ZUMA was designed to clear the terrorists’ hideouts and restore total sanity in the Lake Chad region
ISWAP on the other hand resorted to desperate but extreme measures to fight back against the intrusion of their enclaves by the military through heightenening series of PBIED, VBIED and RSBIED attacks.