By Festus Fifen.

The Nigeria Defence headquarters has said that The Air Component of Operation THUNDER STRIKE on 5th December 2020, destroyed a camp and neutralized scores of armed bandits in air strikes executed at the Kuduru Forest area of Kaduna State. This is just as it provided close air support to the Nigeria Police in a joint offensive operation to clear identified bandits’ hideouts in the Kofa Area of Kaduna State.

According to a statement by the Coordinator Defence Media Operations, Major General John Enenche, made available to BEN Television, The air interdiction mission at Kuduru Forest was carried out sequel to credible intelligence reports indicating that the group of heavily armed bandits responsible for a previous attack on troops at Ngede Allah had originated from a camp within the Forest. Accordingly, following confirmatory Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions that led to the identification of the camp, the Air Component dispatched Nigerian Air Force (NAF) attack aircraft to engage the location scoring devastating hits which destroyed the bandits’ logistics structures and killed several of the criminals.

General Enenche said, The NAF attack aircraft and an ISR platform later provided close air support as the Police advanced from Sarki Pawa through Tawali towards Kofa area. The attack aircraft engaged the bandits at the objective, ahead of the ground forces, while the ISR aircraft provided situational awareness throughout the operation.