The coastal town of Agge, Ekeremor Local Government Area of Bayelsa State was thrown into panic on Monday morning as soldiers in full combat fatigue besieged the town.
The panic led to a near stampede as children and women fled.
The soldiers were on the trail of the bandits that attacked men of the Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta in Bomadi, Delta State.
An eye witness who was among the first residents of the town to arrive Yenagoa, the state capital, said the soldiers arrived in three gunboats and began firing.
The source said before he and few others left Agge, the town had been razed by the light force.
But another survivor said only a part of the town was destroyed in the raid.
He said, however, that several people had fled into the creeks, but were not pursued.
There was no independent confirmation of the destruction of Agge at press time.
JTF Commander in Bayelsa State, Lt-Col Chris Musa, said the soldiers had gone to Agge to arrest the suspected militants that carried out Sunday�s attack in Bomadi.
Musa said the perpetrators of the Bomadi crime had come from Agge and intelligence indicated they had a hideout in the town.
Several residents were afraid the the army had come to avenge the killing of its men that had taken place in the creeks in the past three weeks.
Apart from the Bomadi incident, militants had killed three soldiers and four civillans in the Nembe-Obiaku waterway.
The bodies were found after about fours days by a search party that comprised the JTF and the community leaders.
JTF had warned that it would not tolerate attacks on his men.
The security and peace keeping force had warned those involved to stop it or face the consequences.