As the battle to eradicate the Boko Haram terrorists in the northeastern parts of the country intensifies with Nigerian troops in conjunction with allied forces from neighboring countries gaining the upper hand, there is suppressed excitement about the reported death of a top ranking leader of the terrorist group.

According to PRNigeria, the death of the leader was a casualty of the ongoing heavy air bombing from warplanes while clearing the way for the ground troops of multinational task force to move into some border towns.

A few weeks ago the military high command had obtained approval of political authorities in Abuja to go all out and clear the region of insurgency before the February general elections.

At a period when massive operations were to start, the terrorists carried out simultaneous desperate and diversionary attacks on Maiduguri, Konduga and Monguno to both delay the commencement of planned military offensive and allow for the escape of their commanders.

Despite this, the operations commenced. There has been fierce fighting in the cooperation with Chad, Niger and Cameroon, who are all Nigeria’s neighbours. The attacks led to capture of many towns and villages, previously infested by the terrorists. Some of the towns include Gamboru-Ngala, Malam Fatori, Michika, Abadam, Kirawa and Ashigashiya, while the liberation of Gwaoza, Gulak and others may be announced any moment from now.

During these battles, some of the weapons captured from troops when the terrorists overran Baga, the headquarters of the International Joint Task Force some weeks ago, were recovered by the Nigerian fighters.

The leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, in a video released shortly after the Baga attack boasted that his fighters captured world-class sophisticated weaponry from the Nigerian troops who he referred to as the ‘cowards’.

Among the recovered weapons is a battle armoured vehicle (tank) equipped with comprehensive protective system, canon with maximum firing distance and accuracy, and with an anti-aircraft rotating mount. Tank’s firing accuracy is attained by the range-finder, the ballistic computer with a thermal barrel sleeve.

Several other weapons, arms and ammunition, including a variety of armoured vehicles and artillery guns, as well as several Hilux vehicles, were also re-captured from Boko Haram.

A reliable security source confirmed the death of the top-ranking Boko Haram leader during the air raid. The name of the commander, his authenticity, was still being investigated by military authorities. The leader was one of the senior officers in Boko Haram command to late founder of the group, Muhammed Yusuf.

When Major General Chris Olukolade, the Defence Headquarters spokesperson, was contacted by PRNigeria, he declined to comment on the development, saying: “as far as we are concerned, anybody that is associated with terrorism is a target and right now, we have a task of cleaning up the entire Boko Haram infested region and returning peace to the country.”

The leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, has been in the centre of controversy fore years regarding the death rumours.

On August 19, 2013, the Joint Task Force (JTF) announced the death of Shekau. They claimed he died of gunshots wounds received in an encounter with the JTF in one of their camps in Sambisa Forest on June 30, 2013. He was said to be mortally wounded in the encounter and was sneaked into Amitchide border community in Cameroon for treatment from which he never recovered.

Months later, another character appeared in a video claiming to be Shekau but having different mannerisms, gait and character from the original Shekau. Incidentally, the reign of this Shekau, termed Abubakar Shekau 11 by security sources, was short-lived as he was reportedly killed in a shootout with Nigerian troops in Konduga on Wednesday September 17, 2014.

Although video and still shots of the encounter were provided by the military and the independent sources, the character has once again appeared in another video shortly afterwards, claiming to still be Abubakar Shekau. Military and security sources referred to him as Abubakar Shekau 111.


Source: http://www.naij.com/379993-cautious-jubilation-over-rumoured-death-of-top-ranking-terrorist-commander.html

Total victory by fire!

Pictures

I wish this is a total victory!!

Kill dem all including Buhari

pictures or else...

i lyk the way the chadian and the Nigerian are on the strategic offense...n to b sure.....there war's now got some sense...click like