Air Commodore Ehimen Ejodame said the strike followed intelligence that "a significant number of terrorists were massing and preparing to strike unsuspecting settlements."

"Further intelligence confirmed that the bandits had killed some farmers and abducted a number of civilians, including women and children," Ejodame said in a statement, adding that two local vigilantes were killed and two others injured in the crossfire.

Residents and Amnesty International earlier reported the airstrike, with the rights group calling for authorities to investigate the incident.
"Attacks by bandits clearly warrant a response from the state, but to launch reckless airstrikes into villages again and again  is absolutely unlawful," Amnesty said in a statement.

Residents said the airstrike occurred on Sunday in Maraya and Wabi villages in Zamfara state, one of the epicentres of attacks by armed groups, commonly called bandits, that maraud Nigeria's northwest region.

The attack was carried out at the request of villagers who had suffered a bandit attack at the weekend, the residents said. An unknown number of people were wounded, they said.

"The military aircraft arrived and started firing, killing at least 20 of our people," Abdullahi Ali, a Mani resident and member of a militia group of hunters, told Reuters by phone.

Nigeria's military has in the past admitted to mistakenly targeting civilians while pursuing armed gangs in northwest Nigeria, where there is widespread insecurity, and has promised to investigate such cases.

In January, a military airstrike killed 16 people in Tungar Kara, another town in Zamfara.

Auwal Idris, another resident, said a jet dropped a bomb close to where community guards were fighting bandits, killing 20 of the guards.

--Reuters--