Trump says U.S. military strikes IS in NW Nigeria

WASHINGTON, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday that the U.S. military launched a "powerful and deadly" strike on the Islamic State (IS) branch in northwestern Nigeria.

"Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries!" Trump said on his Truth Social.

"The Department of War executed numerous perfect strikes," Trump wrote, vowing that the United States will not allow radical Islamic terrorism to prosper.

The U.S. Africa Command said the strike was carried out in Sokoto State in coordination with Nigerian authorities and killed multiple IS militants. In an earlier statement posted on social media X, the command said the operation had been conducted at Nigeria's request, but removed the statement later.

The strike came about a week after the United States struck over 70 suspected IS-linked targets in Syria in retaliation for the killing of two U.S. service members and an interpreter.

On Oct. 31, Trump claimed on Truth Social that thousands of Christians were being killed in Nigeria by "radical Islamists," declaring Nigeria a "country of particular concern."

Although the Nigerian government immediately rejected Trump's claims, saying that the accusations "do not reflect the situation on the ground" and vowing to fight terrorism, Trump accused the Nigerian government of not doing enough to prevent the killing of Christians.

In a post on Nov. 1, Trump threatened that the U.S. forces "may very well go into" Nigeria to "completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities."

Days later, the Economic Community of West African States described Trump's allegations that terrorist attacks in Nigeria were targeted at Christians as "false and dangerous," expressing solidarity with the region's most populous country.

With a population of over 230 million people and large reserves of crude oil, Nigeria is divided roughly in half between Christians and Muslims. With Muslims predominant in the north, violence against Christians has escalated there over the past decade as Islamist extremist groups like Boko Haram have expanded their influence, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, a New York-based think tank.

Founded in northeastern Nigeria in 2002, Boko Haram pledged allegiance to the self-proclaimed Islamic State, rebranding itself as the Islamic State in the West African Province in 2015. The group has consolidated control over northeastern Nigeria and parts of Niger since 2021. ■