Troops kill 15 terrorists, recover arms in Borno

Nigerian troops have killed 15 members of the Boko Haram terrorists, who were part of insurgents responsible for Tuesday’s mistaken deployment of rockets by the Nigerian Air Force in Rann, Borno
State. They also captured one terrorist, suspected to be a foreigner.
The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, confirmed the killing and capture of the terrorists in Rann on Friday, when he paid an operational visit to troops of 3 Batallion, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.
Buratai said the insurgents came again to the town in two gun trucks on Thursday at about 6:00 p.m. to attack, but were repelled by the soldiers, who killed 15, while others escaped with one gun truck.
He added that the troops recovered the other truck with weapons, including one General Purpose Machine Gun, three AK47 and ammunitions.
Buratai recalled the Tuesday’s incident, saying the Air Force component of the Operation Lafiya Dole based on intelligence that the terrorists had infiltrated Rann with intent to attack, deployed the rockets.
He, however, regretted that the weapons mistakenly hit Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in the town, killing over 50 civilians and wounding many others.
“Two of our soldiers were also affected in the unfortunate incident,” Buratai said.
He described the incident as unfortunate and big mistake.
“We have all learnt lessons from it.
“We will take note of this; the issue of coordination and passage of the right information will help to prevent such incident again.
“It is a mistake which can happen and it has happened in other places. We pray it never happen again,” the army chief added.