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 on Mutumji Community in Maru Local Government Area of Zamfara State.
The Director, Defence Media Operations (DMO), Major General Musa Danmadami, who made the disclosure, however, maintained that the air strike was targeted solely at bandits who invaded the area in their hundreds on motorcycles.
Gen. Danmadami, while responding to journalists’ questions at a media briefing on 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 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 was 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 in the 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, 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. 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 investigations that are ongoing. The air bombardment was precision bombardment and a lot of terrorists were equally neutralised during the operations.”
While noting that it is not in the character of the military to kill innocent civilians, Gen Danmadami said the military have had to call off several operations in the past for fear of causing collateral damage.
He said: “Most of the time before embarking on such strike, when we realise that it is not humanly viable as regards the kind of damage that it would cost to the society and humans, we have called off several operations until when it is much more conducive for us to take advantage of such opportunities.
“So, you should have that in mind. It is our responsibility to protect life and properties of Nigerians and not for us to come and start killing them. It is not our role to damage properties of innocent citizens of this country.
“So, like I said in the past, a lot of times we have had to call off such operations when we know that we are going to have high casualties in terms of humans and materials.”