Iliyasu Abdullahi Bah
The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has successfully neutralized several high-value Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) commanders and fighters in a precision airstrike conducted in Borno State on July 27.
These confirmed by NAF spokesman Air Commodore Ehimen Ejodame in an official statement released on Monday. The decisive operation followed an extensive series of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions that meticulously tracked and confirmed the terrorists’ return to the area after recent violent inter-factional clashes.
According to Ejodame, the ISR operations uncovered substantial terrorist activities including the coordinated movement of armed foot soldiers, the reactivation of previously abandoned structures, and the strategic concealment of suspected command centers and critical logistics depots hidden beneath the dense forest canopy.
“Acting on verified intelligence reports, NAF immediately deployed its air assets to execute targeted strike missions,” Ejodame stated, adding that upon reaching the target zone, the highly trained aircrew successfully identified and engaged pre-selected targets using advanced precision guided munitions that delivered devastating and accurate results.
Preliminary battle damage assessment reports confirm the complete destruction of multiple fortified structures that housed key ISWAP leadership figures, numerous fighters, and vital logistics storage facilities, effectively crippling the terrorist group’s operational command structure and severely disrupting their planning capabilities as well as supply chain operations across the region, marking another significant blow to ISWAP’s diminishing operational capacity in Nigeria’s northeast.