Military in Borno and Yobe State said yesterday to have killed Ninety-Five suspected members of the Islamist sect Boko Haram in separate encounters.

CEOAFRICA gathered that 74 of the insurgents were killed in an air and ground assault in Borno and the remaining 21 in a clash with soldiers in Yobe.

According to the report, the strike targeted Galangi and Lawanti villages in the Mainok Local Government area, not far from the state capital, Maiduguri, where Boko Haram was founded more than a decade ago.

The strike said to have followed a Monday assault on Boko Haram camps in another part of Borno, in which the military killed 37 Islamist while the Yobe operation was reported to have been sparked by the invasion of Damaturu, the state capital by the fundamentalists on Thursday.

Spokesman for the three Division Special Operation Battalion, Capt. Eli Lazarus, confirmed the operation, saying: "Troops of Three Division Special Operation Battalion had a fierce encounter with the terrorists in various parts of Damaturu, the Yobe state capital, for several hours on Thursday."