Nigerian Air Force destroys Boko Haram structures in “Operation Thunder Strike’'

The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) says it has destroyed Boko Haram terrorists structures in Bama, Gobara, in its ongoing “Operation Thunder Strike’’ against the insurgents in North East.

The NAF’s Director of Public Relations and Information, AVM. Olatokunbo Adesanya, who confirmed this in a statement on Friday in Abuja, said the air interdiction was carried out on Tuesday.

“On the second day of the ongoing operation `Thunder Strike’, the Air Task Force (ATF) operation Lafiya Dole successfully conducted air interdiction on Boko Haram Terrorists (BHT) infested location, 13 Nautical Miles North East of Bama. A Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft had previously observed significant BHT presence in the location. Accordingly, the ATF detailed a combination of fighter aircraft and helicopter gunships to attack the insurgents’ position. Overhead the location, the attack platforms took turns to unleash their ordinance on the targets while the NAF ISR aircraft conducted Battle Damage Assessment (BDA),” he said.

He said at the end of attacks, the BDA revealed the target structures to have been destroyed and engulfed in fire while the occupying terrorists were neutralised. According to Adesanya, the Air Task Force later in the day, in continuation of the operation, successfully conducted another attack on a location in Gobara, 15km Northwest of Gwoza.

“Previous ISR report had indicated that the location served as a hideout for the insurgents. Consequently, NAF fighter aircraft were detailed to carry out air interdiction on the location. The fighter jets acquired and took turns to strafe the location, destroying the building and killing most of the BHTs in the process. After the attacks, the BDA revealed that some other adjoining BHT structures and hideouts were equally destroyed,” he said.