American forces launched a ‘powerful and deadly strike’
US President Donald Trump said Thursday night that he’d launched a “powerful and deadly strike” against so-called Islamic State forces in Nigeria on Christmas Day, after he spent weeks decrying the group for targeting Christians.
The president posted on his social media site: “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!”
Last month, Mr Trump said he’d ordered the Pentagon to begin planning for potential military action in Nigeria following the claims of Christian persecution.
The State Department then announced in recent weeks that it would restrict visas for Nigerians and their family members involved in mass killings and violence against Christians in the West African country.
The US recently designated Nigeria a “country of particular concern” under the International Religious Freedom Act.
“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,” Mr Trump wrote in his Christmas Day post.
He said that US defence officials had “executed numerous perfect strikes, as only the United States is capable of doing”.
The president added: “our Country will not allow Radical Islamic Terrorism to prosper.”
Pete Hegseth, the US Secretary for War, said: “The President was clear last month: the killing of innocent Christians in Nigeria (and elsewhere) must end. The Department of War is always ready, so ISIS found out tonight — on Christmas. More to come… Grateful for Nigerian government support & cooperation.”
Areas of Nigeria, as well as surrounding West African countries, face frequent attacks by jihadist forces, including Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province.
Fighting and kidnapping also occurs between herders and farmers vying for control of land in the country, which is split between a number of ethnic groups and boasts large populations of both Christians and Muslims.
Earlier this week, families and villagers in Nigeria cried and hugged schoolchildren as they were reunited with the youngsters who were held for a month after being seized in one of the largest mass abductions in the country’s history.
The 130 schoolchildren and teachers were released on Sunday and brought home late Wednesday night, marking the last group freed since the November 21 attack on St Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri.
School kidnappings driven by ransoms have become a major security issue in Africa’s most populous country.
Authorities earlier said 303 schoolchildren and 12 teachers were seized in the Niger state attack but later revised the number to 230, adding that all had now been released, without stating how.
Elsewhere in the country, a bomb exploded during prayers at a mosque in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri, killing five people in what police described as a likely suicide attack.
Officers said 35 people were also injured in the attack in the state of Borno, and that fragments of a suspected suicide vest were found at the site.
No group has claimed the attack, but the use of suicide bombers has been heavily attributed to Boko Haram, the Islamic militant group which has previously claimed many such attacks across the north east.
