Troops Kill 37 Terrorists, Arrest 95, Rescue 53 Victims

The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) yesterday said troops on internal operations killed 37 terrorists, arrested 95 terrorists and rescued 53 hostages in one week.

The director of Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba, who disclosed this in a statement, said troops arrested 19 suspected oil thieves and recovered stolen crude worth N3.4 billion.

General Buba said troops in the Niger Delta area discovered and destroyed 56 illegal refining sites with 42 dugout pits, 82 boats, 143 storage tanks, 234 cooking ovens,  61 hoses, 17 drums, one pumping machine, two outboard engines and one vessel.

He said the troops within the week recovered 100 assorted weapons and 1,207 assorted ammunition.

He gave a breakdown of recovered weapons to include;45 AK47 rifles, 11 locally fabricated AK47 rifles, six pump action guns, 12 dane guns, two AK47 rifles loaded with 34 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, two locally made guns, two locally fabricated pistols, and two locally made revolvers.

Others are; 925 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 28 rounds of 9mm ammo, 157 live cartridges, 23 magazines, 27 vehicles, 25 motorcycles, 38 mobile phones, two HH radios, two boafeng radios, four bicycles and one tricycle amongst others.

Troops recovered 6,009,500 litres of stolen crude oil, 425,715 litres of illegally refined AGO, 38,100 litres of DPK and 4,500 litres of PMS.

He said the military is in a good fight and is winning in the war.

“Our operations have killed or captured several terrorist and insurgent  leaders as well as their facilitators and key associates”.

He said the insurgents are in perpetual mourning as they constantly bury their dead and “would continue to do so”.

“Our communities across the country have risen to the occasion in exposing these elements and it is making a tremendous impact on operations as they no longer have a hiding place,” he added.