- The Military High Command confirmed the location as a terrorist hideout, struck with precision, and emphasized that no civilians were directly killed in the airstrike.
The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has said that the airstrike in Sokoto State targeted the Lakurawa terrorist group, striking their logistics base and resulting in a secondary explosion that killed villagers.
Major General Edward Buba, Director Defence Media Operations, provided an update on the airstrike in Sokoto, where 10 civilians lost their lives.
“The airstrike indeed hit the logistic base of the terrorists, which led to secondary explosions and resulted in casualties,” General Buba stated.
Prior to the operation on December 25, 2024, heightened terrorist activities were confirmed in the area, prompting sustained intelligence gathering to verify the presence of terrorists.
The operation was rescheduled to December 25 due to meticulous planning, ensuring that those in the location were indeed terrorists.
General Buba explained that the operation combined air and land components, leveraging precision strikes and ground presence to target the terrorists.
Pre-operational intelligence and surveillance confirmed terrorist activities, followed by human intelligence reports that corroborated these findings, highlighting the importance of neutralizing the location.
“Having confirmed, aircraft were dispatched to conduct precision airstrikes on identified hideouts at about 0600 hours,” General Buba said.
The strike used precision-guided munitions to minimize collateral damage, while ground forces were deployed to prevent the escape of terrorists and assess the strike’s impact.
Ground forces confirmed the hideout’s destruction, minimal damage to surrounding villages, and the presence of Lakurawa terrorists in the area.
“The ground forces also confirmed that the airstrikes achieved their primary objective of neutralizing the Lakurawa terrorist group’s hideout,” General Buba added.
The destruction of key terrorist infrastructure and the effectiveness of the strike were confirmed, with surviving terrorists fleeing the area due to their familiarity with the terrain.
Locals confirmed that Lakurawa terrorists used the village as a staging area for operations, consistent with intelligence reports indicating a high concentration of terrorists.
General Buba acknowledged the airstrike’s minor impact on surrounding villages and that neutralized terrorists were burnt beyond recognition due to direct hits.
“It is also noted that terrorists blend in with local populations, making it challenging to differentiate between friend and foe,” General Buba said.
Buba noted that the use of drones in combat is not unprecedented, and urged calm, noting that the drones in question are not military-grade.
“I don’t think that there is need for any unnecessary panic about the usage of drones. We are in war against terrorists and against insurgents across our country and all we need to look is not far from what you see happening in Ukraine, Russia, Israel, Hamas and all that,” he said.
“The use of drones in the battlefield is not new. Now, when we are talking of drones now, please, we don’t want unnecessary panic because these are not professional drones, not military graded drones.
“These are toys that they went to buy and found a way to put one or two things on board and use them. How effective were they? They were not effective.
Are we doing something about it? Yes, we are.
“Since we now know that this is where their thinking and their thought is going, we are going to use measures to forestall future of such attacks. I don’t call them really attacks. I call them harassment because those are harassments.”
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