Troops Arrest 182 Terrorists, Kill 73, Rescue 68 Hostages In 1 Week — DHQ

The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) on Thursday said troops on internal operations killed 73 terrorists, arrested 182 and rescued 68 hostages in one week.

The director, Defence Media Operations Major General Edward Buba who disclosed this during biweekly update on military operations said troops identified and destroyed 63 illegal refining sites containing 15 dugout pits, 45 boats, 87 storage tanks, 128 cooking ovens, one pumping machine, four outboard engine and arrested 14 suspected oil thieves.

General Buba said the troops recovered 962,500 litres of stolen crude oil, 35,420 litres of illegally refined AGO, 38,450 litres of DPK and 45,000 litres of PMS with estimated value of N1.2bn.

Troops also recovered 119 assorted weapons and 1,537 assorted ammunitions in the period under review.

He gave a breakdown of recovered weapons to include; one GPMG, three PKT guns, 39 AK47 rifles, five locally fabricated rifles, one locally made double barrel gun, one barreta pistol, four locally made pistols, five RPG bombs, five pump action guns, one short gun, one hand grenade, two dane guns, one AK47 rifle loaded with 14 rounds of 7.62mm special, one locally made pistol loaded with live cartridges.

Others are: 586 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, a bag containing 287 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 389 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 141 rounds of 7.62mm special (belted) ammo, 12 rounds of 9mm ammo, 113 rounds of live cartridges, 25 empty magazine, 13 vehicles, 3 motorcycles, 10 mobile phones, 2 HH radio, one boafeng radio and the sum of N3.3m amongst other items.

He said the ongoing counter terrorism and counter insurgency operations have prevented criminals from accomplishing their strategic objectives, adding that the military will continue to degrade their ability to carry out small scale attacks which are intended to create panic in localities.