The Nigerian task force has rescued six Filipinos and four Nigerians held hostage by militants, the military spokesman told Xinhua on Saturday.
Military spokesman Rabe Abubakar said the Joint Task Force (JTF) set free the hostages in the volatile Niger Delta region on Friday night.
The Filipinos were part of the 15 crew members taken hostage by members of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), the main militant group in the region, after their ship was recently seized.
Abubakar said the task force also regained the hijacked MV Spirit, a chartered oil tanker in the operation to rescue all the sailors on board the ship.
He said all the rescued hostages were in good condition, noting none of the Filipinos was killed during the operation.
MEND claimed on Friday that stray bullets from troops killed a Filipino hostage.
Abubakar said the ongoing military push would continue.
MEND on Friday declared an "all-out war" in Nigeria's southern oil-rich region.
The MEND-JTF clash erupted on Wednesday in the swamps of the Niger Delta region, with the military claiming to have killed 200 militants.
Source:Xinhua
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