“It was not our soldiers that were attacked. If the story was true, journalists in Maiduguri would have reported the incident. What happened was that the people of that community were being attacked and some of them called our soldiers to come to their rescue," the Army Public Relations Director stated.
The Nigerian Army has denied reports that members of Boko Haram terrorists killed 30 soldiers at Zari village in Guzamala area of Borno State last week.
Described the report as untrue, the Army's spokesperson noted that it wasn't its officers that the report referred to.
Military sources had claimed that not less than 30 soldiers were killed by Boko Haram insurgents, following a raid on its military base in Borno. [story_link align="left"]62474[/story_link]
However, speaking to Daily Sun in a telephone interview on Sunday, Brigadier-General Texas Chukwu, Director, Army Public Relations, explained that soldiers on internal security operations at Zari, went on a rescue mission following an alert by the villagers that they were being attacked by terrorists who invaded their village.
He said the soldiers, on receiving the alert moved into the village, and engaged the terrorists in a shootout, and killed several of them with the help of the Nigerian Air Force fighter jet.
He said: “It was not our soldiers that were attacked. If the story was true, journalists in Maiduguri would have reported the incident. What happened was that the people of that community were being attacked and some of them called our soldiers to come to their rescue.
“Our soldiers went and started firing them and they engaged them in a shootout until the NAF came and strike them because they were looting the community of their food and at the same time extorting money from them.
“We killed many of them but you know Boko Haram when you kill them, they will carry their corpses and run. That has been their tactics from the beginning. That is why if you see 100 of them, those that would be armed will not be up to 20, so that they will be able to evacuate the bodies of their dead colleagues and bury them in shallow graves and run.”