IS-Linked Militants Attack Nigerian Army Base with Grenades and Drones

TDT | Manama

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Militants linked to the Islamic State carried out a deadly assault on a Nigerian army base in the country’s troubled northeast, killing seven soldiers and planting explosives along a key highway, military sources told AFP on Saturday.

The attack, launched early Friday by fighters from the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), targeted a military base in Ngamdu village, located about 100 kilometres from Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State.

According to military officials, the insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades and deployed explosive-laden drones in a coordinated strike. “We lost seven soldiers in the well-coordinated attack by ISWAP terrorists,” one officer said.

A second military source confirmed the same death toll, adding that four army vehicles were destroyed in the assault. Both officers spoke anonymously as they were not authorised to discuss the incident publicly.

A military memo reviewed by AFP reported six soldiers killed and another six wounded. It noted that the number of militant casualties remained unclear, though “blood stains on the ground” suggested losses on their side.

However, an official army statement later claimed a lower figure of four soldiers killed, saying troops and reinforcement units from a nearby base repelled the attackers.

The Nigerian military has often downplayed casualty numbers in its ongoing 16-year battle against jihadist groups seeking to establish a caliphate in the northeast.

Following the assault, authorities temporarily closed the 120-kilometre Maiduguri–Damaturu highway to allow bomb disposal units to remove explosives planted by the militants.

In recent years, the Nigerian army has consolidated smaller outposts into larger, heavily fortified “super camps” in a bid to better withstand militant attacks. Despite these efforts, ISWAP and Boko Haram factions continue to launch deadly strikes across the region, underscoring the persistent instability in the country’s northeast.