The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) said it has successfully destroyed a Boko Haram Terrorists (BHTs) facility for manufacturing of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).
NAF said the operation which was in furtherance of operation Lafiya Dole on took place 20 November 2017,
The BHT bmb making facility, which was in a place known as Yiwe Forest, was located 23km south of Konduga in Borno State.
NAF Director of Public, Relations and Information, Air Commodore Olatokunbo Adesanya said in a statement that previous NAF Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions had revealed the location to be a BHT hideout, from where the Maiduguri suicide bombing of 18 November 2017 was reportedly planned. Available Human Intelligence also revealed that the hideout contained IED-making facility for the insurgents’ suicide bombing attacks.
Accordingly, one Mi-17 Helicopter, 2 x Alpha Jet and 2 x F-7Ni aircraft were detailed to carry out air interdiction on the target over a 2-day period. Overhead the location, the aircraft took turns to deliver a combination of bombs, rockets and cannons on the target.
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The subsequent Battle Damage Assessment (BDA) revealed that the strikes had destroyed the IED-making facility and other BHT structures, killing an unspecified number of insurgents in the process.
The air strikes also caused a huge flame within the settlement, owing to the cache of IEDs stored by the BHTs, while a few fleeing insurgents were further strafed with cannons and rockets.
