No fewer than 30 terrorists were killed by soldiers on Sunday in Zungeru in Wushshi Local Government Area in Niger state.
TheHintsNews reports that the soldiers were ambushed by the bandits while on their way to respond to a distress call from Akare community where the terrorists, referred to as bandits by the locals, had gone to rustle cattle.
The terrorists were said to be numbering about 70 and fully armed with sophisticated weapons.
The soldiers, it was gathered, fought the gunmen to a standstill, eliminating over 30 of them, while several others sustained gunshot injuries and are currently hiding in the bush as the soldiers were said to have reinforced to lunch another offensive against them.
However, during the encounter, a major, 10 soldiers and unspecified number of local vigilantes were killed by the terrorists, while ight other soldiers were seriously injured.
The soldiers, it was further gathered, were given wrong information as to the movement of the terrorists, hence they ran into ambush by the bandits.
A source close to the community revealed that about 30 of bandits were killed in the encounter with their bodies left in the forest while those that were injured were ferried away by members of their gang to the bush.
“The bandits were completely looking different with their physique and long hairs from the ones that usually terrorized the people of the area, fueling suspicious that they may be machineries hired to carry out the attack,” the sour e added.
It was further gathered that the bodies of the slain soldiers were deposited at the Federal Medical Centre Zungeru before they were evacuated on Monday morning to an unknown destination.
Meanwhile, palpable fear has gripped the people of Wushishi, Zungeru and neighboring communities following heavy deployment of security to the area to fish out the criminals responsible for the attacks as they were said to be stranded in the bush with their rustled cattle and their injured colleagues.