SAHARANEWS – No fewer than nine soldiers of Operation Lafiya Dole were reportedly killed, while 20 others could not be accounted for after a battle with insurgents in Gudumbali town of Borno State.
This followed a fierce battle between the troops and Boko Haram insurgents who were said to have planned a massive attack in the axis.
Channels Television gathered that the soldiers were ambushed by the terrorists in a village called Granda, engaging them overnight from Monday until the early hours of Tuesday.
The troops were said to be closely supported by the air component of Operation Lafiya Dole.
Sources, however, said some of the soldiers later fled, leading to the overrunning of the military base, during which nine soldiers got killed.
They claimed that seven of the fallen soldiers were slaughtered as the insurgents beat a retreat.
The bodies of the slain soldiers had since been evacuated and deposited at the military hospital in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.
According to eyewitnesses, the insurgents carted away a fuel tanker and other vehicles.
However, it was not clear if the terrorists abducted some of the missing soldiers as claimed.
The ambushed battalion had just been deployed to Gudumbali to commence a new operational strategy codenamed Super Camp.
It was gathered that the insurgents had deployed spies around the military base who pretended to be farmers.
Army authorities have yet to confirm the incident and the casualty figure.
Channels Television could not reach the Theatre Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, Major General Olusegun Adeniyi, as his phone was switched off at press time.