The Nigerian Armed Forces on Saturday said that Nigerian Air Force (NAF) fighter jets on Friday conducted “massive air strikes” against Boko Haram terrorists in the Sambisa forest general area of Borno State, killing “many terrorists and destroying their logistics facilities.
Coordinator, Defence Media Operations, Major General John Enenche said in a statement that the attack followed intelligence reports that the terrorists were scaling up activities in the area.
According to General Enenche, “Boko Haram Terrorists (BHTs) in the Sambisa Forest general area of Borno State have been set in disarray as a result of massive air strikes conducted by the Air Task Force (ATF) of Operation LAFIYA DOLE on 15 May 2020.
“The operation was executed based on credible intelligence reports as well as series of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions, which showed that the terrorists had upscaled their activities in the settlement by importing additional fighters and increasing their logistics stocks preparatory to attacks on troops’ locations and surrounding civilian settlements.
“Consequently, the ATF dispatched an enhanced force package of attack aircraft and a surveillance platform to engage the location.
“Overhead the target area, significant activity of the terrorists was observed in different parts of the settlement. The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) fighter jets took turns in attacking the target area, neutralizing many BHTs as well as destroying their logistics facilities and other structures in successive passes, thereby further degrading their will to fight.”