In a data dump a few weeks ago I noted the initial big jihadi attacks:
Jihadis killed a lot of Chadian and Nigerian troops. The death toll suggests very sloppy force protection practices by the troop commanders.
And the next week the allies geared up for a counterattack:
Last week I mentioned the embarrassing troop losses that Nigeria and Chad endured at the hands of jihadis. Nigeria announced a "massive" offensive against the jihadis along with Chad and Niger. What the offensive needs to be is persistent if it isn't just a massive public relations ploy to counter the image of jihadis slaughtering troops.
Which apparently hammered the jihadis:
I mentioned losses Nigeria and Chad endured at the hands of jihadis and the announced counter-offensive. This is big if true: "The Chadian army said Thursday it had wound up an offensive against Boko Haram jihadists in the Lake Chad border region in which 52 troops and 1,000 jihadists were killed." I do worry that Chad defines any running local resident as a jihadi--and any local resident standing still is a well-disciplined jihadi.
Strategypage writes of the events I briefly noted:
When enough ISWAP groups have made themselves comfortable and secure in their assigned area they can contribute mobile (using trucks and motorcycles) fighters that can become part of a larger attack force that can inflict a major defeat on the military. That’s what happened on March 23rd to the Chad army base on Bohoma Island. The Chad forces got sloppy and ISWAP took advantage of that. The Chad Army is usually more professional and effective than that and the Bohoma [defeat] will motivate commanders to do better. This may backfire on ISWAP but at the moment ISWAP is ignoring the recent losses on the Lake Chad coast and Abubakar Sheka, the ISWAP declared a victory. He also sent out a second video message urging his followers to remain firm and defeat enemy attacks. This message was an acknowledgement of recent heavy ISWAP losses in southern Chad.
So it seems as if there was some atypical troop sloppiness and yes, the counteroffensive did hammer the jihadis.
The Long War goes on. But you have to admit that Nigeria, Niger, and Chad have certainly earned jihadi hatred for their invasion of Iraq in 2003. I hear that is what causes the jihadis to hate us, after all.
