The military unit was heading to the village of Areej to deliver food to soldiers fighting jihadists in the area.
Nigerian security sources announced on Tuesday that a number of soldiers were killed in the northeast of the country, in an armed ambush, during which a suicide car bomb exploded, in an attack claimed by the regional branch of ISIS.
The sources said that gunmen from ISIS in West Africa ambushed a military convoy near the village of Metele in Borno state on Friday afternoon.
The sources added that, as a result, armed clashes broke out between the two sides, which ended in an attack by a suicide bomber driving a rigged car, who blew up his car among the soldiers.
One of these sources said, “We lost many men in the fierce battle against ISIS terrorists in West Africa, following a suicide car bomb attack… I cannot announce an exact outcome, but the losses are great.”
ISIS’s adoption of the operation
The military unit was heading to the village of Areej, to deliver food to the soldiers fighting the jihadists in the area.
According to a second source, who asked not to be named, “The soldiers fought valiantly, and the tide of the battle was tilted in their favor when a suicide bomber detonated his rigged car among them, killing many of them.”
On Sunday, the jihadist group claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the SITE Center, which tracks jihadists’ online activities around the world.
According to SITE, the jihadist organization confirmed that the suicide bombing resulted in “the killing and wounding of no less than 20 soldiers.” ISIS West Africa, which split from Boko Haram in 2016, has become the dominant jihadist group in the Lake Chad region.
