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US president says ‘lethal strike’ in Nigeria focused ISIL fighters who had killed ‘primarily, harmless Christians’.
The United States has carried out an air strike towards ISIL (ISIS) fighters in northwest Nigeria, US President Donald Trump mentioned.
“Tonight, at my route as Commander in Chief, the US launched a robust and lethal strike towards ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria,” Trump mentioned in a publish on his Fact Social platform on Thursday night.
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Trump mentioned ISIL fighters had “focused and viciously” killed “primarily, harmless Christians, at ranges not seen for a few years, and even Centuries!”
“I’ve previously warned these Terrorists that if they didn’t cease the slaughtering of Christians, there can be hell to pay, and tonight, there was,” Trump mentioned.
The US army’s Africa Command (AFRICOM), which is chargeable for operations in Africa, mentioned in a publish on X that the air strike was carried out “on the request of Nigerian authorities” and had killed “a number of ISIS terrorists”.
“Grateful for Nigerian authorities help & cooperation,” US Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth wrote on social media, warning additionally of “extra to return”, with out offering particulars.
In an announcement, AFRICOM mentioned the strike occurred in “Soboto state,” an obvious reference to Nigeria’s Sokoto state.
The US army motion comes weeks after Trump mentioned he had ordered the Pentagon to start planning for potential army motion in Nigeria following claims of Christian persecution within the nation.
Nigeria’s authorities had dismissed Trump’s assertions saying armed teams goal each Muslim and Christian communities within the nation, and US claims that Christians face persecution do not represent a complex security situation and ignore efforts by Nigerian authorities to safeguard spiritual freedom.
Nigeria’s Overseas Ministry issued an announcement shortly after Trump introduced the US strike confirming early on Friday that Nigerian authorities had been “engaged in structured safety cooperation with worldwide companions, together with the US of America, in addressing the persistent menace of terrorism and violent extremism”.
“This has led to precision hits on terrorist targets in Nigeria by air strikes within the North West,” the ministry mentioned.
Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris, reporting from Lagos in Nigeria, mentioned footage are circulating on social media of missile fragments following a strike exterior a village in Sokoto State that didn’t trigger casualties.
“To take a look at the difficulty of alleged Christian genocide in Nigeria, Sokoto State might be the final place many Nigerians would assume it’s taking place,” Idris mentioned, explaining that the overwhelming majority of the state’s inhabitants are Muslim and there had been few if any assaults on Christians within the area that he might recall.
Reporting from Washington DC, Al Jazeera’s Shihab Rattansi mentioned the specter of US army motion in Nigeria had been “percolating for a while” and Donald Trump had accused Nigeria of not doing sufficient to guard its Christian group in his first time period as president.
“However within the final two months or so, with congressional stress and the State Division, they declared Nigeria a selected nation of concern when it got here to the rights of Christians and we had heard that the US had begun overflight surveillance of Nigeria from an airbase in Accra, in Ghana, over the past a number of weeks. And now we’ve this,” Rattansi mentioned.
“On Christmas Day, the Trump administration acts. It will go down very effectively with Trump’s Christian evangelical base, I’m certain,” he mentioned.
Trump issued his assault assertion on Christmas Day whereas he was at his Palm Seashore, Florida, Mar-a-Lago Membership, the place he has been spending the vacation.
