'MERRY CHRISTMAS to dead terrorists': Trump says US launched deadly strikes at ISIS in Nigeria over 'slaughter of Christians'. Watch
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "'MERRY CHRISTMAS to dead terrorists': Trump says US launched deadly strikes at ISIS in Nigeria over 'slaughter of Christians'. Watch")
Donald Trump Photograph: (AFP)
Trump announced US airstrikes on Christmas Day against ISIS-linked militants in Nigeria’s Sokoto region, the first such action under his current term. AFRICOM said multiple fighters were killed at Nigeria’s request. Trump framed it as retaliation for violence against Christians.
US President Donald Trump on Thursday (Dec 25) announced that American forces carried out what he described as "powerful and deadly" airstrikes against Islamic State militants in northwestern Nigeria, marking the first US military action in the country under his current term. The strikes, conducted on Christmas Day, targeted Islamic State-linked fighters operating in Nigeria’s Sokoto region. The United States Africa Command confirmed that "multiple ISIS militants" were killed in the operation, which it said was carried out at the request of Nigerian authorities. No details were released on the exact locations hit or the number of casualties.
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US hits back at "slaughtering of Christians"
Trump framed the strikes as a response to violence against Christians in Nigeria, a theme he has repeatedly emphasised in recent months. In a message posted on his Truth Social platform, the president said, "I have previously warned these Terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay," Trump wrote. "And, tonight, there was." He ended the message with a twisted holiday greeting.
"May God Bless our Military," he said, adding provocatively, "MERRY CHRISTMAS to all, including the dead Terrorists, of which there will be many more if their slaughter of Christians continues."
Nigeria requested the operation?
In an X post, the US Africa Command said it carried out the operation at the "request of Nigerian authorities in (Sokoto state) killing multiple ISIS terrorists."
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth praised the operation and thanked the Nigerian government for its support and cooperation, saying US forces were prepared to act swiftly when requested by partners.
The strikes come after Trump sharply criticised Nigeria late last year, claiming Christians there face what he called an "existential threat" that amounted to "genocide". Those comments drew mixed reactions. Some Christian advocacy groups welcomed Washington's focus on religious violence, while analysts and Nigerian officials warned that framing the country's complex security crisis primarily through a religious lens risks inflaming tensions.
Nigeria insists it's not "religious persecution"
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Nigeria's government has consistently rejected claims that the conflict amounts to targeted religious persecution, pointing instead to overlapping insurgencies, criminal violence and weak governance across vast rural areas. For more than 15 years, Nigeria’s northeast has been battered by jihadist violence from Boko Haram and its offshoots, a conflict that has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions. In the northwest and central regions, heavily armed criminal gangs known locally as bandits have also terrorized communities through mass kidnappings and village raids.
