ABUJA, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Several Boko Haram militants have been killed in a gunfight which followed an ambush on the convoy of top Nigerian army commanders in the country's northeastern state of Borno, the army confirmed on Tuesday.
At least four army commanders fighting Boko Haram in the northeast region were in the convoy attacked by the group in Kaga local government area of the state on Monday, the army said.
Maj.-Gen. Olusegun Adeniyi, the theater commander of operations in the northeast, and three other army commanders were on their way from a troops' location in Jakana town of Borno when the Boko Haram militants struck from a bush, Aminu Iliyasu, a spokesperson of the army in that part of the country, told reporters.
According to Iliyasu, the ambush was "a clear display of misguided desperation" by the Boko Haram to stage a reprisal, following a recent killing of several of their top commanders by troops on Dec. 6.
He said the theater commander led the troops to engage the militants with superior firepower, subduing them and thereafter assaulting the ambush site. Two soldiers were wounded in the gunfight.
"In the aftermath of the encounter, several Boko Haram criminal insurgents were decimated," Iliyasu said, adding many arms and ammunition were recovered from some fleeing Boko Haram fighters.
