The US has carried out strikes against Daesh targets in northwest Nigeria, President Donald Trump said, claiming the group has been targeting Christians.
"Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS (Daesh) Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians," Trump said on Truth Social on Thursday.
"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 added that the Pentagon executed numerous perfect strikes, "as only the United States is capable of doing."
Nigeria's Foreign Ministry confirmed on Friday that precision air strikes by the United States have hit "terrorist targets" in the country's northwest and added it remains engaged with Washington in "structured security cooperation."
The Nigerian authorities and researchers have always dismissed Trump’s claims that terrorists particularly target Christians in Nigeria as false, saying the terrorist groups carry out indiscriminate attacks on civilians irrespective of their religious backgrounds.
Demonstration of strength
The US Africa Command said in a post on X that the strike came at the request of Nigerian authorities.
"AFRICOM conducted a strike at the request of Nigerian authorities in Soboto State killing multiple ISIS (Daesh) terrorists," AFRICOM said in the post, referring to Sokoto state in northwest Nigeria.
"Lethal strikes against ISIS demonstrate the strength of our military and our commitment to eliminating terrorist threats against Americans at home and abroad."
Nigeria's government previously said that armed groups target both Muslims and Christians. However, Trump claimed in October that Christians face an "existential threat" in the country.
Earlier in the week, Reuters news agency reported that the US had been conducting intelligence-gathering flights over large parts of Nigeria since late November.
