President Donald Trump said Thursday night that he\u2019d launched a \u201cpowerful and deadly” U.S. strike against Islamic State forces in Nigeria, after spending weeks accusing the West African country’s government of failing to rein in the persecution of Christians. <\/p>\n
\u201cTonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries!\u201d the president posted on his social media site.<\/p>\n
His post did not include information about how the strike was carried out, nor what effects it had. But the U.S. Africa Command posted on X that it had \u201cconducted a strike at the request of Nigerian authorities in Soboto State killing multiple ISIS terrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLethal strikes against ISIS demonstrate the strength of our military and our commitment to eliminating terrorist threats against Americans at home and abroad,\u201d its post said. <\/p>\n
The Defense Department did not immediately answer requests for comment. <\/p>\n
In response to Trump’s previous criticisms, Nigeria’s government says that people of many faiths, not just Christians, have suffered attacks at the hands of extremists groups. <\/p>\n
Still, last month, Trump said he\u2019d ordered the Pentagon to begin planning for potential military action in Nigeria following the claims of Christian persecution. The State Department has also announced it would restrict visas for Nigerians and their family members involved in mass killings and violence against Christians in the West African country.<\/p>\n
And the U.S. recently designated Nigeria a \u201ccountry of particular concern\u201d under the International Religious Freedom Act.<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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,\u201d Trump wrote in his Christmas night post. <\/p>\n
He said that U.S. defense officials had \u201cexecuted numerous perfect strikes, as only the United States is capable of doing” and added that \u201cour Country will not allow Radical Islamic Terrorism to prosper.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nigeria\u2019s population of 220 million is split almost equally between Christians and Muslims. The country has long faced insecurity from various fronts including the Boko Haram extremist group, which seeks to establish its radical interpretation of Islamic law and has also targeted Muslims it deems not Muslim enough.<\/p>\n
But attacks in Nigeria often have varying motives. There are religiously motivated ones targeting both Christians and Muslims, clashes between farmers and herders over dwindling resources, communal rivalries, secessionist groups and ethnic clashes.<\/p>\n
The U.S. security footprint has diminished in Africa, where military partnerships have either been scaled down or canceled. U.S. forces likely would have to be drawn from other parts of the world for any military intervention in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
Trump has nonetheless kept up the pressure as Nigeria faced a series of attacks on schools and churches in violence that experts and residents say targets both Christians and Muslims.<\/p>\n
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted Thursday night on X: \u201cThe President was clear last month: the killing of innocent Christians in Nigeria (and elsewhere) must end.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hegseth said that U.S. military forces are \u201calways ready, so ISIS found out tonight \u2014 on Christmas\u201d and added, \u201cMore to come\u2026Grateful for Nigerian government support & cooperation\u201d before signing off, \u201cMerry Christmas!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump said Thursday night that he\u2019d launched a \u201cpowerful and deadly” U.S. strike against Islamic State…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[33360,48,52,51,47,50,49],"class_list":{"0":"post-109130","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-africa","9":"tag-la","10":"tag-la-headlines","11":"tag-la-news","12":"tag-los-angeles","13":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","14":"tag-los-angeles-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}