ABUJA, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Airstrikes by the Nigerian military killed a number of Boko Haram militants and destroyed a location identified as their command and control center following a raid in the northeastern state of Borno, a military spokesman said here on Saturday.
The raid, on Friday, targeted the command and control center of the Boko Haram terror group in Dusala, on the fringes of the Sambisa forest in Borno, Ibikunle Daramola, spokesman for the Nigerian air force, said in a statement made available to Xinhua in Abuja.
Three Alpha jets dispatched by the Air Task Force engaged the location in multiple passes, recording accurate hits on the target area, he said.
Daramola declined to give the accurate figure of Boko Haram militants killed in the raid but said the structures housing the command center were completely destroyed by the airstrikes.
"The few surviving terrorists, who were seen attempting to flee the area, were taken out by follow-on attacks," he said.
The spokesman said the raid was part of renewed efforts aimed at eliminating remnants of Boko Haram and Islamic State of West Africa Province terrorists in the troubled northeast of Nigeria.
The operation was executed after a series of intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance missions that led to the identification of the terror group's command center with its solar panels, communications equipment, and other facilities, he said.
The Nigerian air force, operating in concert with surface forces, would sustain its operations against the terrorists in the northeast region, Daramola added.
The northeast region has been destabilized for over a decade by Boko Haram, which most notoriously kidnapped hundreds of schoolgirls in 2014.
Boko Haram is known for its agenda to maintain a virtual caliphate in the most populous African country.
