The Defence Headquarters (DHQ), on Thursday, denied media reports that terrorists had overrun a military base in Marte Local Government Area (LGA), of Borno State.
Coordinator Defence Media Operations, Maj. Gen. John Enenche, made this clarification while giving an update on military operations in the last one week.
It was reported few days ago that the Boko Haram/Islamic West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists, had attempted to attack troops’ location at the outskirts of Marte, but were repelled.
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Enenche explained: “The story going round as it were that the base (at Marte) was taken over is not true. The attackers came in through one of the checkpoints at a filling station.
“When they came to that checkpoint in order to attack, the troops there had to do what we call tactical withdrawal.
“That tactical withdrawal is to move away so that they (terrorists) can now go into the killing ground.
“At times, we have to pull out and draw them into the killing ground, that is what we did and it achieved result. When you do that (tactical withdrawal), you now call for air support.
“Several of them were killed; 13 gun trucks were destroyed at the end of the day.’’
The coordinator added that the capabilities of the insurgents in the North East were being degraded.
