US military struck ISIS terrorists in Nigeria - Trump
Oladipupo Olamiposi@olamiposioladipupo247606
1 month ago
President Donald Trump said Thursday he’d ordered a deadly strike on Islamic State terrorists in Nigeria, who he has accused of persecuting Christians in the country.
In a post on social media, Trump said he’d directed a “powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria,” who he said had been killing innocent Christians.
US Africa Command said it conducted the strikes in Sokoto state, which borders Niger to the north, “in coordination with Nigerian authorities.” AFRICOM’s initial assessment is that “multiple ISIS terrorists were killed in the ISIS camps,” according to a news release.
A US official told CNN the strikes included Tomahawk missiles fired from a Navy vessel that struck two ISIS camps.
In a post on social media, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said there was “more to come,” without expanding further and added he was “grateful for Nigerian government support & cooperation.”
“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,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Thursday evening. “The Department of War executed numerous perfect strikes, as only the United States is capable of doing.”
Meanwhile, Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar told CNN Friday that he had spoken with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio prior to the strike and that Nigerian President Bola Tinubu gave the “go ahead.”
“This is not about religion. It is about Nigerians, innocent civilians, and the wider region as a whole,” Tuggar said.
Speaking of the wider terrorism threat facing Western Africa – particularly in the Sahel region, which has marked the fastest growth in violent extremist activity on the continent – Tuggar said: “When you talk about the Sahel, (the) majority are Muslims. They’re not Christians.”
“Whoever is prepared to work with us to fight terrorism, we’re ready, willing and able,” he said, later adding: “We demonstrated this yesterday.”
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