ABUJA, June 28 (Xinhua) -- Fifteen members of an armed group were killed in a gunfight with troops in Nigeria's troubled northwestern state of Zamfara, said military authorities on Friday.
The troops, maintaining an aggressive posture, encountered heavy resistance from the heavily armed group on Thursday in Dansadau district of the state, Lt. Abayomi Oni-Orisan, a military spokesman, told Xinhua.
He said the armed group members were eventually overpowered and some of them ran away with bullet wounds.
Oni-Orisan said the bandits, who had been terrorizing the area, were overrun by the troops at their camps in Madada forest, an area in Dansadau district of Maru local government area of the state.
"The gallant troops also effectively destroyed all their camps and logistics," he said.
According to the military official, one soldier was killed and a vigilante group member was seriously wounded in the encounter.
The country's defense authorities earlier said the troops had a mandate to continue to pursue and rout the armed group members out of the area, with the "explicit orders to destroy all camps and neutralize any resistance."
The Madada forest is known as a place that had become notorious for harboring heavily fortified groups in the troubled state.
The state of Zamfara, as well as neighboring Kaduna State, have witnessed a series of attacks by armed groups in recent months.
There have also been recurring incidents of livestock rustling and armed banditry in the region.
