{"id":5485,"date":"2026-03-29T10:25:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T10:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.securityfocus.ng\/?p=5485"},"modified":"2026-03-29T10:25:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T10:25:18","slug":"troops-neutralise-terrorists-in-benue-lose-one-soldier-in-gun-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.securityfocus.ng\/index.php\/2026\/03\/29\/troops-neutralise-terrorists-in-benue-lose-one-soldier-in-gun-battle\/","title":{"rendered":"Troops neutralise terrorists in Benue, lose one soldier in gun battle"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Army troops of Operation Whirl Stroke, OPWS, have repelled terrorists attack in Kwande Local Government Area of Benue State, killing several terrorists in the encounter.<br \/><br \/>This was made known in a post on X by Zagazola Makama, a counter-insurgency and security expert in the Lake Chad region.<br \/><br \/>Makama stated that the incident occurred at about 1:00 p.m. on March 27 around Iyarwya waterside, where troops of Sector 1 responded to intelligence on the movement of suspected terrorists.<br \/><br \/>According to Makama, troops made contact with the assailants and engaged them in a gun duel, killing several of them and forcing them to flee initially.<br \/><br \/>\u201cTroops pursued the fleeing terrorists across the river, where they came under ambush,\u201d Makama said.<br \/><br \/>He added that during the encounter, one soldier paid the supreme price in action while another sustained gunshot wounds.<br \/><br \/>Makama further stated that the injured soldier was evacuated to the Federal Medical Centre, Makurdi, for treatment, while the remains of the deceased were deposited at the mortuary.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Army troops of Operation Whirl Stroke, OPWS, have repelled terrorists attack in Kwande Local Government Area of Benue State, killing several terrorists in the encounter. This was made known in a post on X by Zagazola Makama, a counter-insurgency and security expert in the Lake Chad region. Makama stated that the incident occurred at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v27.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Troops neutralise terrorists in Benue, lose one soldier in gun battle - Security Focus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Troops neutralise terrorists in Benue, lose one soldier in gun battle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.securityfocus.ng\/index.php\/2026\/03\/29\/troops-neutralise-terrorists-in-benue-lose-one-soldier-in-gun-battle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Troops neutralise terrorists in Benue, lose one soldier in gun battle\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Troops neutralise terrorists in Benue, lose one soldier in gun battle\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.securityfocus.ng\/index.php\/2026\/03\/29\/troops-neutralise-terrorists-in-benue-lose-one-soldier-in-gun-battle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Security Focus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-29T10:25:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.securityfocus.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/TROOPS.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1156\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"651\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Security Focus\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Security Focus\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.securityfocus.ng\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/29\\\/troops-neutralise-terrorists-in-benue-lose-one-soldier-in-gun-battle\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.securityfocus.ng\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/29\\\/troops-neutralise-terrorists-in-benue-lose-one-soldier-in-gun-battle\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Security Focus\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.securityfocus.ng\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/220178e1e8e4a686a310b9a5c516c887\"},\"headline\":\"Troops neutralise terrorists in Benue, lose one soldier in gun battle\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-29T10:25:18+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.securityfocus.ng\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/29\\\/troops-neutralise-terrorists-in-benue-lose-one-soldier-in-gun-battle\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":175,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.securityfocus.ng\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.securityfocus.ng\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/29\\\/troops-neutralise-terrorists-in-benue-lose-one-soldier-in-gun-battle\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.securityfocus.ng\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/11\\\/TROOPS.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.securityfocus.ng\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/29\\\/troops-neutralise-terrorists-in-benue-lose-one-soldier-in-gun-battle\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.securityfocus.ng\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/29\\\/troops-neutralise-terrorists-in-benue-lose-one-soldier-in-gun-battle\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.securityfocus.ng\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/29\\\/troops-neutralise-terrorists-in-benue-lose-one-soldier-in-gun-battle\\\/\",\"name\":\"Troops neutralise terrorists in Benue, lose one soldier in gun battle - 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