{"id":885241,"date":"2026-01-15T08:23:56","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T14:23:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/15\/us-launches-strike-against-islamic-state-militants-in-northwest-nigeria\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T08:23:56","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T14:23:56","slug":"us-launches-strike-against-islamic-state-militants-in-northwest-nigeria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/15\/us-launches-strike-against-islamic-state-militants-in-northwest-nigeria\/","title":{"rendered":"US launches strike against Islamic State militants in northwest Nigeria"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

PALM BEACH, Florida<\/span> \u2013 The US has carried out an air strike against ISIS militants in north-west Nigeria at the request of Nigeria\u2019s government, President Donald Trump and the US military said on Dec 25, claiming the group had been targeting Christians in the region. <\/p>\n

In a post on his Truth Social platform, the US leader said: \u201cTonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS terrorist scum in north-west Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even centuries!\u201d <\/p>\n

The US military\u2019s Africa Command said the strike was carried out in Sokoto state\u00a0in coordination with the Nigerian authorities and killed multiple ISIS militants.<\/p>\n

Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Maitama Tuggar told the BBC that the strike was a \u201cjoint operation\u201d targeting \u201cterrorists\u201d, and it \u201chas nothing to do with a particular religion\u201d.<\/p>\n

Without naming ISIS specifically, Mr Tuggar said the operation had been planned \u201cfor quite some time\u201d and had used intelligence information provided by the Nigerian side. <\/p>\n

He did not rule out further strikes, adding that this depended on \u201cdecisions to be taken by the leadership of the two countries\u201d.<\/p>\n

The strike comes after Mr Trump, since late October, began warning that <\/a><\/p>\n

Christianity faces an \u201cexistential threat\u201d in Nigeria<\/p>\n

and threatened to intervene militarily in the West African country over what he says is its failure to stop violence targeting Christian communities.<\/p>\n

Reuters reported on Dec 22 that the US had been conducting intelligence-gathering flights over large parts of Nigeria since late November.<\/p>\n

Nigeria\u2019s Foreign Ministry said the strikes were carried out as part of ongoing security cooperation with the US, involving intelligence sharing and strategic coordination to target militant groups. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis has led to precision hits on terrorist targets in Nigeria by air strikes in the north-west,\u201d the ministry said in a post on X.<\/p>\n

A video posted by the Pentagon showed at least one projectile being launched from a warship. <\/p>\n

A US defence official said the strike targeted multiple militants at known ISIS camps.<\/p>\n

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth on X thanked the Nigerian government for its support and cooperation and said: \u201cMore to come…\u201d<\/p>\n

Nigeria\u2019s government has said armed groups target both Muslims and Christians, and US claims that Christians face persecution do not reflect a complex security situation and ignore efforts to safeguard religious freedom. <\/p>\n

But it has agreed to work with the US to bolster its forces against militant groups.<\/p>\n

The country\u2019s population is split between Muslims living primarily in the north and Christians in the south.<\/p>\n

\u201c(The Pentagon) worked with the government of Nigeria to carry out these strikes. These strikes were approved by the government of Nigeria,\u201d a Pentagon official said. <\/p>\n

The police said earlier on Dec 25 that a <\/a><\/p>\n

suspected suicide bomber killed at least five people<\/p>\n

and injured 35 others in Nigeria\u2019s north-east, another region troubled by Islamist insurgents.<\/p>\n

In a Christmas message posted on X earlier, Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu called for peace in his country, \u201cespecially between individuals of differing religious beliefs\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cI stand committed to doing everything within my power to enshrine religious freedom in Nigeria and to protect Christians, Muslims, and all Nigerians from violence,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump issued his statement on the strike on Christmas Day while he was at his Palm Beach, Florida, Mar-a-Lago club, where he has been spending the holiday. <\/p>\n

He had no public events during the day and was last seen by the reporters travelling with him on the night of Dec 24.<\/p>\n

The US military last week launched separate large-scale strikes against dozens of ISIS targets in Syria after Mr Trump vowed to hit back in the wake of a suspected ISIS attack on US personnel in the country. REUTERS<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Thomas Howe
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PALM BEACH, Florida \u2013 The US has carried out an air strike against ISIS militants in north-west Nigeria at the request of Nigeria\u2019s government, President Donald Trump and the US military said on Dec 25, claiming the group had been targeting Christians in the region. In a post on his Truth Social platform, the US<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":885242,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2432,1384],"tags":[7812,6930],"class_list":{"0":"post-885241","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-launches","8":"category-strike","9":"tag-launches","10":"tag-strike"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=885241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/885242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=885241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=885241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=885241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}