Nigerian troops on the frontline have killed 67 terrorists, arresting 190 of them and rescueing 47 kidnapped hostages.
Director Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba who made the disclosure noted that troops continued their aggressive posture in the ongoing counter terrorism and counter insurgency operations across the country.
According to him, “Troops substantially inflicted casualties on terrorist, insurgents and violent extremist through operations ranging from fighting patrols, ambushes, raids to air interdictions.
“The operations of the last one week, resulted in 67 neutralized terrorists with 190 arrested. Troops also arrested 57 perpetrators of oil theft and rescued 47 kidnapped hostages. In the SS, troops denied oil theft of the estimated sum of Seven Hundred and Twenty Seven Million Seven Hundred and Eighty Six thousand Eight Hundred Naira (N727, 786,800.00) only.
“Furthermore, troops recovered 112 assorted weapons and 989 assorted ammunition. The breakdown as follows: one GT3 rifle, 42 AK47 rifles, 11 locally fabricated rifles, 7 pump action guns, one locally made double barrel, pistols, 3 dane gun, 2 locally made pistols, 342 rounds of 7.62mm NATO ammo, 321 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 190 rounds of 7.62 x 51mm NATO, 34 rounds of 9mm ammo, 74 live cartridges.
“Others are: 166 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, empty shells, 27 magazines, 23 vehicles, 33 motorcycles, 31 mobile phones, 5 boafeng radios, 4 bicycles, cutlasses, axes, digital camera and the sum of N3,278,700.00 amongst other items.
“Troops in the Niger Delta area discovered and destroyed 106 dugout pits, 111 boats, 229 storage tanks, 290 cooking ovens, 8 pumping machine, 10 outboard engine, 2 speedboats, one vessel and 96 illegal refining sites. Troops recovered 506,500 litres of stolen crude oil, 477,790 litres of illegally refined AGO and 51,000 litres of DPK.
“The military will continue to deny the terrorist, insurgents and violent extremist the ability to achieve their selfish objectives. The war is on and their days are numbered, unless they surrender.”