Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: President Donald Trump said the United States carried out a military strike against ISIS targets in northwest Nigeria on December 25, describing the action as a direct response to escalating attacks on civilians.
“Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria,” Trump said in a statement. He said the group had been “targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries!”
Trump said he had issued warnings in advance. “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. According to the US President, US forces carried out multiple operations during the mission. “The Department of War executed numerous perfect strikes, as only the United States is capable of doing,” he said, without providing operational details. “Under my leadership, our Country will not allow Radical Islamic Terrorism to prosper,” he said.
The Amercian strike comes amid heightened congressional focus on Nigeria’s security situation. The US had recently designated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern. House Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Mario Díaz-Balart recently led a bipartisan Congressional delegation to Nigeria to examine what lawmakers described as alarming anti-Christian violence and religious persecution.
Members of the delegation said they heard directly from victims, local officials, and faith groups, and held briefings with the U.S. Embassy on escalating religious violence, particularly in the Middle Belt. Lawmakers discussed threats to Christian communities, mass casualty attacks, and large-scale displacement, as well as the need to improve policing, counterterrorism operations, and accountability.
