"Our men succeeded in killing 13 suspected Boko Haram terrorists in a shootout near Digil village (in eastern Nigeria), where troops caught up with them after they robbed a bureau de change in Mubi," said Lieutenant Colonel Beyidi Martins, commander of a special army unit in Mubi yesterday.
Mubi, a town in Adamawa state, has been hit by a series of attacks blamed on Boko Haram, a radical Islamist group that has killed thousands of people since 2009.
Troops caught up with the fleeing gunmen 25 kilometres (15 miles) away and engaged them in a shootout, killing 13 of them.
"We recovered rifles and stolen cash from the terrorists," Martins told AFP.
More From This Section
The Nigerian army has repeatedly accused Boko Haram of armed robbery to fund its four-year insurgency.
In October, around 40 students were killed in Mubi in raids on off-campus student accommodation blamed on Boko Haram.