73 Insurgents Killed In Failed Boko Haram Konduga Attack

No fewer than 73 Boko Haram terrorists yesterday fell to the superior firepower of the Nigerian troops during a failed attempt by the insurgents’ bid to retake Konduga town in Borno State. One Nigerian soldier was reportedly killed in the attack which lasted over five hours, security sources said.

The terrorists attempted to retake Konduga, a town 35km south-west of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, when they stormed the town with a herd of cows and a Volkswagen golf car filled with explosives.

A soldier that participated in the Konduga counter-operation said the terrorists tried to carry out a suicide bomb attack after which they would attack the town from different angles, but a military sniper was able to gun down the driver of the explosives-laden car before he came close.

“Even before they came we had a pre-information about them and we laid an ambush after securing our territory” said a top ranked officer who spoke to LEADERSHIP on phone.

“Initially they flocked a herd of cows into Konduga in order to create some kind of diversion and confuse us to enable the suicide bomber attack from another side, but we were able to gun the vehicle from afar before it got near and the car exploded. After that, the terrorists came in their large numbers and we engaged in several hours of shooting with them.”

The soldier said the terrorists, just like the previous attacks on Konduga, had again failed with many of them killed and several others seriously injured.

“We counted about 73 of them that were killed and many others who got injured escaped. But we lost a soldier during the shootout,” he said.

The soldier added that it took the support from the fighter jets of the Nigeria Air Force to defeat the terrorists who eventually gave up and fled at about 1pm.

A top security chief in Maiduguri confirmed the incident, but was not forthcoming on the death toll given by the soldiers in the field.

Konduga has repeatedly been attacked for over 15 times in the last 10 months as Boko Haram terrorists are bent on capturing the town as part of their strategy to launch an attack on Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, but they have been bloodied in each attempt. (Leadership)