The Nigerian Air Force (NAF), the Nigeria Police Force and other security agencies in a special coordinated operation had smoked out bandits from their camps at Walawa, Yadi and Kuduru Hills areas of Kaduna.
The NAF said the joint forces also neutralised several of the bandits and destroyed some of their logistics supplies in the process.
Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola, NAF Director of Public Relations and Information, who made this known in a statement on Wednesday in Abuja, said the operation was executed on Tuesday.
“This was achieved in a joint air and ground operation executed on March 17, after credible intelligence reports and days of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance missions.
“It reveals that the bandits, after driving away the original inhabitants of the area, had continued to operate from the locations with impunity.
“Accordingly, the NAF detailed its attack aircraft to conduct series of air raids at the bandits’ camps resulting in the destruction of some of the logistics facilities and structures housing the bandits as well as the neutralisation of several of them.
“The air strikes also paved way for ground forces to conduct mop-up operations, supported by NAF combat helicopters.
“In all, no fewer than five commanders of Ansaru and a dozen bandits are neutralised in the operation,’’ he said.
Daramola said the NAF, working in consonance with other security agencies, would sustain its operations to flush the bandits out of the North West Zone of the country.