Nigeria’s military says it has killed 103 fighters from Daesh in seven air strikes targeting insurgent positions and supply facilities in the country’s northeast.
The strikes were carried out between October 10 and 18 in Borno and Adamawa states by army aviation units, remotely piloted aircraft and the air component of Operation Hadin Kai, Nigeria’s counter-insurgency campaign.
The Joint Task Force said the operations were intelligence-led and destroyed facilities used by the group to support its activities.
One strike on October 18 targeted a building in Arina Woje, in Borno State’s Monguno area, which the military identified as an alternative residence of Abu Saleem, a Daesh commander in the southern Lake Chad region. The military said the strike killed his chief security guard, Jindullah, and Shura Council member Abul Kissa, alongside other fighters. It also destroyed the building, nine boat engines and several motorcycles.
In a separate operation on October 13, a military surveillance aircraft tracked 16 fighters travelling from Mairari towards a gathering of more than 100 suspected insurgents near Monguno. The military’s statement did not specify the outcome of that operation.
The reported strikes are part of Nigeria’s campaign against insurgent groups operating around the Lake Chad Basin, where years of armed violence have displaced communities and threatened civilian security. The military’s casualty figures have not been independently verified.
