Nigeria has ordered \u200ca full and independent investigation into a military airstrike on a market that left at least\u00a0200 people feared dead, while defending the operation that it said targeted \u200bterrorists based in an enclave controlled by insurgents.<\/p>\n
Saturday’s airstrike is the \u200blatest to have caused\u00a0heavy civilian casualties\u00a0in northeast Nigeria, where \u2060battlelines are blurred.<\/p>\n
As terrorists control territories, markets and supply routes, while \u200bcivilians move through restricted areas for survival, rights groups have warned strikes \u200bon contested spaces carry a high risk of killing bystanders.<\/p>\n
Information Minister Mohammed Idris expressed regret for civilian casualties but said the Air Force hit “confirmed terrorist targets” in Jilli village, \u200ba high-risk no-go zone in Gubio district that has for years served \u200bas a logistics hub for Boko Haram and Islamic State offshoot, ISWAP, in the \u200cregion.<\/p>\n
“The \u2060Federal Government reiterates that this was a deliberate, intelligence-led operation, not an indiscriminate attack, conducted in one of the most active insurgent corridors in the northeast,” Idris said in a statement late on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
He said the investigation \u200bwould look into the \u200boperation’s planning and \u2060execution.<\/p>\n
Authorities said Jilli, known locally as the “terrorists’ market”, and the nearby Gazabure market were shut about five years \u200bago after militants took control, with intelligence showing the \u200barea was \u2060used to collect levies, buy supplies, and plan attacks, including assaults on\u00a0April 9\u00a0in Ngamdu and Benisheikh that killed a general.<\/p>\n
Militants have waged a 17-year insurgency \u2060seeking \u200bto carve out an Islamic state in northeast \u200bNigeria, killing thousands and displacing at least 2 million people, aid groups say, despite major \u200bmilitary campaigns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nigeria has ordered \u200ca full and independent investigation into a military airstrike on a market that left at least\u00a0200 people feared dead, while defending the operation that it said targeted \u200bterrorists based in an enclave controlled by insurgents. Saturday’s airstrike is the \u200blatest to have caused\u00a0heavy civilian casualties\u00a0in northeast Nigeria, where \u2060battlelines are blurred. As […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":20521,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":7,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"Reuters","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2362,1129,27],"tags":[1133,3689,5034,175],"class_list":["post-20520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-security","category-west-africa","tag-boko-haram","tag-islamic-state-west-africa-province-iswap","tag-jilli-village","tag-nigeria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20520"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20522,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20520\/revisions\/20522"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}