\u201cMay God Bless our Military,\u201d he said, adding provocatively, \u201cMERRY CHRISTMAS to all, including the dead Terrorists, of which there will be many more if their slaughter of Christians continues.\u201d<\/p>\n
The attacks mark the first by US forces in Nigeria under Trump and come after the Republican leader unexpectedly berated the west African nation in October and November, saying Christians there faced an \u201cexistential threat\u201d that amounted to \u201cgenocide\u201d amid Nigeria\u2019s myriad armed conflicts.<\/p>\n
That diplomatic offensive was welcomed by some but interpreted by others as inflaming religious tensions in Africa\u2019s most populous country, which has experienced bouts of sectarian violence in the past.<\/p>\n
Nigeria\u2019s Government and independent analysts reject framing the country\u2019s violence in terms of religious persecution \u2013 a narrative long used by the Christian right in the United States and Europe.<\/p>\n
But Trump, spotlighting what his administration says is global persecution of Christians, stressed last month that Washington was ready to take military action in Nigeria \u2013 with \u201cguns-a-blazing\u201d \u2013 to counter such killings.<\/p>\n
Thursday’s attacks mark the first by US forces in Nigeria under President Donald Trump. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u2018Grateful\u2019 for co-operation<\/p>\n
The Nigerian foreign ministry said the country was engaged with international partners against terrorism.<\/p>\n
\u201cNigerian authorities remain engaged in structured security co-operation with international partners, including the United States of America, in addressing the persistent threat of terrorism and violent extremism,\u201d the ministry said in a statement on Friday.<\/p>\n
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth took to X to say he was \u201cgrateful for Nigerian government support & co-operation\u201d.<\/p>\n
The United States this year placed Nigeria back on the list of countries of \u201cparticular concern\u201d regarding religious freedom and has restricted the issuance of visas to Nigerians.<\/p>\n
Trump last month also threatened to stop all aid to Abuja if it \u201ccontinues to allow the killing of Christians\u201d.<\/p>\n
Nigeria is almost evenly divided between a Muslim-majority north and largely Christian south.<\/p>\n
Its northeast has been in the grip of jihadist violence for more than 15 years by the Islamist Boko Haram group, which has claimed more than 40,000 lives and displaced two million people.<\/p>\n
At the same time, large parts of the country\u2019s northwest, north and centre have been hit by criminal gangs known as \u201cbandits\u201d who attack villages, killing and kidnapping residents.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday an explosion ripped through a mosque in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, killing at least seven worshippers. No armed groups immediately claimed responsibility.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cMay God Bless our Military,\u201d he said, adding provocatively, \u201cMERRY CHRISTMAS to all, including the dead Terrorists, of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[74,9092,17704,82650,18399,26441,2841,5972,6659,2178,8223,42,78,115766,1739,123951,43,24648,34608,90,17216,2572,3048,19063,123952,8220,28050,40,38,41,39,2179,3040,8222,4518],"class_list":["post-202268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-after","tag-against","tag-assault","tag-christians","tag-christmas","tag-conducted","tag-country","tag-day","tag-deadly","tag-donald","tag-forces","tag-headlines","tag-in","tag-isis","tag-launches","tag-militants","tag-news","tag-nigeria","tag-northwestern","tag-on","tag-powerful","tag-president","tag-said","tag-strikes","tag-systemic","tag-targets","tag-thursday","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-trump","tag-us","tag-warned","tag-weeks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}