Trump Launches US Strikes On ISIS Targets In Nigeria On Christmas Day

Following his warning to Islamic State terrorists to cease killing Christians in Nigeria, President Donald Trump claimed that the US military carried out "powerful and deadly" strikes against the group on Thursday in northwest Nigeria.

Few details were provided, but the Department of Defence claimed that "multiple ISIS terrorists" were killed in a strike carried out at the request of Nigerian authorities.

Trump claims that the strikes struck IS targets on Christmas Day.

"I have previously warned these Terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was," he said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

"May God Bless our Military," he said, adding provocatively, "MERRY CHRISTMAS to all, including the dead Terrorists, of which there will be many more if their slaughter of Christians continues."

US Africa Command said in an X post that it conducted a strike "at the request of Nigerian authorities in (Sokoto state) killing multiple ISIS terrorists."

Pete Hegseth, the chief of the Pentagon, also praised his department's preparedness to act in Nigeria on X, saying he was "grateful for Nigerian government support & cooperation."

The attacks, which are the first by US forces in Nigeria under Trump, follow the Republican leader's surprising criticism of the West African country in October and November, claiming that Christians there faced a "genocide"-like "existential threat" among Nigeria's numerous armed conflicts.

Some praised the diplomatic offensive, while others saw it as escalating religious tensions in the most populous nation in Africa, which has already experienced episodes of sectarian bloodshed.

Nigeria's government and independent analysts disagree with the narrative long employed by the Christian right in the US and Europe, which frames the country's violence in terms of religious persecution.

However, Trump emphasised that Washington was prepared to use force in Nigeria to stop such atrocities, highlighting what his government claims is widespread persecution of Christians.

Nigeria was added to the list of nations of "particular concern" for religious freedom by the US this year, and Nigerians are no longer eligible to obtain visas.

Nigeria is split nearly evenly between a predominantly Christian south and a Muslim north.

Its northeast has been in the grip of jihadist violence for more than 15 years by the Islamist Boko Haram group, which has claimed more than 40,000 lives and displaced two million people.

At the same time, large parts of the country's northwest, north and centre have been hit by criminal gangs known as "bandits" who attack villages, killing and kidnapping residents.