The Armed Forces of Nigeria on Friday said that the airstrikes of the Air Task Force of Operation Lafiya Dole destroyed the hideouts of Boko Haram/Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists’ hideouts and killed several of their fighters in the Lake Chad and Sambisa Forest areas of Borno State.
Coordinator, Defence Media Operations, Major General John Enenche, said in a statement that the air interdiction were launched on September 22 under a subsidiary operation tagged ‘Operation Hail Storm’ and that one of the targets was located at Bula Sabo on the fringes of the Sambisa Forest. Some terrorist Commanders use the location as dwelling place.
According to General Enenche, “the Air Task Force of Operation LAFIYA DOLE has destroyed Boko Haram Terrorists’ (BHTs’) hideouts and neutralized several of their fighters at Bula Sabo and Dole in Borno State. This was achieved through air strikes executed on 23 September 2020 to mark the launch of a new subsidiary Operation, tagged ‘HAIL STORM 2’, which is an air interdiction operation aimed at taking out identified Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) and BHT targets in the Lake Chad and Sambisa Forest areas of Borno State.
“The attack at Bula Sabo, on the fringes of the Sambisa Forest, was executed after credible intelligence reports indicated that a group of buildings in the settlement were being used as dwelling for some BHT commanders. Accordingly, the Air Task Force dispatched Nigerian Air Force (NAF) fighter jets and helicopter gunships, which scored devastating hits on the target buildings, including a logistics facility, which was seen engulfed in flames.
“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 neutralizing several fighters.”