Jihadists from the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP)*, an Al-Qaeda*-linked terrorist group, killed six Nigerian soldiers in an attack on a base in the Borno state in the Northeast of the country, Nigerian military officers told a French media outlet.
"We lost six soldiers in the ISWAP terrorist attack on the base after an intense gun battle," one of the officers said.
The attackers, arriving in trucks and on motorcycles, set fire to the base and army vehicles before being forced to retreat by the military; airstrikes targeted the fleeing jihadists, resulting in additional ISWAP casualties, the officers noted.
"Airstrikes against the fleeing terrorists resulted in multiple militant fatalities, the destruction of operational vehicles and their weaponry," they pointed out.
*a terrorist group outlawed in Russia and many other countries