From Molly Kilete, Abuja
The Defence Headquarters said it is investigating the alleged killing of innocent civilians during an air strike last Sunday targeted at terrorists who converged at Mutumji Community in Maru Local Government Area of Zamfara State.
The Director, Defence Media Operations (DMO), Major General Musa Danmadami, who made this known, maintained that the air strike was targeted solely at bandits who invaded the area in their hundreds on motorcycles.
Gen Danmadami, while responding to journalist questions at a media briefing on an update on military operations conducted in the last three weeks, said the allegations notwithstanding, the military high command has set up a board to investigate the alleged killings of innocent civilians and collateral damage during the air strike carried out by the air component of the operations.
The Director while lamenting the death of some soldiers from the ground forces during the operations noted that the number of soldiers killed in the operations is being over-exaggerated in the media.
While noting that the number of civilians alleged to have been killed during the operation has not been officially communicated to the military by the Zamfara State government, Danmadami, said: “The operation was conducted successfully and a lot of terrorists were killed that air strike. It was a combined operation between the ground forces and the Air component.
“Unfortunately, during the ground forces operations, we lost some soldiers which is true but the number of civilian casualties and collateral damage cannot be confirmed.
“The Zamfara State government has not come out to give us any figure as far as that incident is concerned,” he said.
“Investigation has been ordered into the operation to ascertain if actually there was collateral damage and equally the number of people that were involved
So for now we cannot give you any specific number as to the level of collateral damage that happened during that incident so as not to jeopardise the investigation that is ongoing.
“The air bombardment was a precision bombardment and a lot of terrorists were equally neutralised during the operations,” Gen. Danmadami, said.