The US has launched airstrikes on Nigeria, President Trump has said, hitting targets linked to the Islamic State who he claimed were responsible for “viciously killing … innocent Christians”.
Announcing the strikes on the evening of Christmas Day, Trump said on Truth Social: “Tonight, at my direction as commander in chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against Isis terrorist scum in north-west Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even centuries!”
The president added that only the American military was capable of executing the “numerous perfect strikes”.
The US military’s Africa Command said the strike was carried out in Sokoto state in co-ordination with Nigerian authorities and killed multiple Isis militants.
Nigeria’s foreign minister, Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, said the strike was a “joint operation” targeting “terrorists”, and it “has nothing to do with a particular religion”.
Without naming Isis specifically, Tuggar said the operation had been planned “for quite some time” and had used intelligence information provided by the Nigerians. He did not rule out further strikes, adding that this depended on “decisions to be taken by the leadership of the two countries”.
More than a dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired from a naval ship in the Gulf of Guinea, hitting insurgents in two Isis camps in the northwestern state of Sokoto, according to The New York Times.
Pete Hegseth, the secretary of war, said on X that there would be “more to come”, while Nigeria’s foreign ministry said the attacks were carried out as part of ongoing security co-operation with the US.
A video posted by the Pentagon showed at least one projectile launched from a warship. A US defence official said the strike targeted multiple militants at known Isis camps.
The strike comes after Trump in late October threatened to send his military intervention in to Nigeria “guns a-blazing” over what he said was a failure to stop violence targeting Christian communities.
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Laurie Wastell is an Associate Editor of the Daily Sceptic and the host of the Sceptic, our weekly podcast. He is also a regular contributor to the Spectator. This article was sourced HERE
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