The Nigerian military has scored quick successes against Boko Haram, flushing out the terrorists and retaking three towns in quick succession.

A report in Daily Sun named Mararaba, Gulak and Uba, a boundary town between Adamawa and Borno states, as two of the newly recaptured towns while reports in THISDAY and Peoples Daily have it that Bazza has also been recaptured by Nigerian troops after responding to Boko Haram’s attacks with the deployment of fighter jets and helicopter gunships.

Nigerian troops, who earlier recovered Bama, the second largest town in Borno State, from the terrorists, appear to have finally switched on the killer mode. Daily Sun quoted a military source as saying: “They have taken Uba and Gulak. Soldiers from Borno and Adamawa states were involved in the operation in Uba. As we are talking now, the soldiers are taking on the insurgents in Mararaba which is between Michika and Mubi. The soldiers have blocked most of their (Boko Haram’s) routes to Cameroon while the Air Force is carrying out aerial bombardment.”

Another military source quoted by THISDAY said that Nigerian troops had recaptured Bazza in Adamawa State after a fierce battle with the outlawed Boko Haram group, leading to the death of several of its members.

The senior military source confirmed that the troops were also fighting valiantly to uproot members of the sect from Michika.

“It was after our air force jets bombarded their strongholds mounted on roads that the troops moved in on a clearing mission,” the officer revealed.

He said more troops had been sent to Michika, Gulak and Mubi to combat the insurgents, assuring that the military would overwhelm the insurgents in the area.

A similar report appeared in Peoples Daily, which added that “thousands of the residents of Gulak, Michika and Bazza had fled to neighbouring towns and Cameroon, as Boko Haram had unleashed mayhem on residents during their short reign over the towns.”

The paper also reported “heavy gun shots in Vintim ward, hometown of Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, just as the emir of Mubi, Abubakar Isa Ahmadu, was sneaked out of the town.”

News Express reports that Boko Haram, which had engaged in a guerilla warfare since 2009, recently changed tactics, taking over towns and daring Nigerian troops, who, however, appear to have rediscovered the killer instinct that made them to be respected in Africa and elsewhere in the world where they usually excelled during peace-keeping operations.

•Photo shows Nigerian troops on duty in the troubled North-East.

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