About 12 soldiers including a colonel, the
Divisional Police Officer, DPO, three policemen and four civilians were feared
killed at the weekend when about 200 terrorists operating in many Toyota Hilux
vehicles attacked Damboa Local Government Area of Borno State.
The structure housing the Divisional Police
Headquarters in the area, markets, houses and vehicles were also destroyed
during the encounter between the terrorists and the armed forces.
No fewer than 50 of the terrorists were,
however, said to have been killed when ground troops and Air Force fighter jets
engaged the attackers, sources said.
The incident took place on Friday at about 5
pm when the insurgents, who, according to sources, came with two anti aircraft
guns mounted on two of their pick-up vans, different types of improvised
explosive devices, EIDs, rocket-propelled launchers, stormed the town in what
the sources described as a revenge mission targeted at the 195 Battalion of the
7 Division, Nigerian Army, and police formations.
This came on a day two suicide bombers, at a
checkpoint, manned by members of the Civilian JTF, killed five
members of the vigilante youths, injuring many of them including passersby.
Some terrorists also laid ambush along the
busy Maiduguri-Mafa-Dikwa Road killing about 15 passengers and motorists.
The Friday attack was the second time Boko
Haram insurgents had attempted to attack a military base in Damboa town, 85
kilometers south of Maiduguri, Borno State capital, but ended up with heavy
casualty.
According to a source,
the Boko Haram insurgents seemed to be on a reprisal mission, hours after
an Air Frce jet bombarded their base in Yajiwa and Alagarno areas of Damboa
local government area killing scores of the insurgents.
The source narrated: “It was a successful air
raid carried out by the Air Force in conjunction with the ground troops of the
Nigeria Army from 7 Division. During the air raid that took place in the
evening, the Boko Haram suffered heavy casualty as dozens of them were killed.
Angered by the devastation they suffered, the insurgents decided to mobilise in
full force with an attempt to attack the base in Damboa, but, unknown to them,
the soldiers there were fully aware and alert about possible reprisal attack.
And when they eventually surfaced on Friday, in over ten vehicles, the soldiers
took them by surprise and engaged them in a fierce shoot out that claimed over
50 of them, unfortunately we also lost over 10 of our officers and men in the
encounter”.
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