The United States carried out airstrikes against ISIS militants in northwest Nigeria at the request of Nigeria's government, U.S. President Donald Trump and the U.S. military said on Thursday, claiming the group had been targeting Christians in the region.

Washington

The United States has carried out airstrikes in Nigeria targeting ISIS, following through on President Donald Trump's earlier pledge to intensify action against the group. The strikes, described as 'deadly' by Trump, were supported by the Nigerian government through intelligence sharing, though casualty figures have not been released.

Trump justified the strikes by citing ISIS attacks on Christians in Nigeria, but local officials and experts emphasized that insurgent violence affects both Christians and Muslims. The operation comes shortly after U.S. strikes on ISIS in Syria and Turkish arrests of ISIS suspects, reflecting a broader regional effort to counter the group.

U.S. launches 'deadly' airstrikes in Nigeria targeting ISIS: Trump

We begin with breaking news overnight, President Donald Trump has ramped up U.S. airstrikes on ISIS, making good on a weeks-old promise to hit targets in Nigeria just days after similar attacks in Syria. The U.S. Department of War released this video, said to show missiles being launched from a Navy ship in an unspecified location. Trump calls the strike deadly, but doesn't specify how many people may have been killed. Journalist Jagruti Dave is following this story for us today. She joins us from Washington. Good morning, Jagruti. Donald Trump was quick to go online today and justify these strikes on Nigeria. Wondering what more do we know about it and what is Donald Trump saying? Well, Tricia, we've got some bits and pieces coming out from different U.S. departments. You have that video, as you mentioned, from the Department of War showing a missile appearing to be launched from a Navy vehicle. It was posted by the Department of War. It was labeled unclassified, but we don't know exactly where this missile was launched from. We've also got Donald Trump, who has been in recent weeks and months really amplifying this narrative about the persecution of Christians in Nigeria. And he took to social media to explain the justification behind these strikes. And he said that ISIS terrorists scum have been targeting and viciously killing primarily innocent Christians at levels not seen for many years and even centuries. He said, I've previously warned these terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay. And tonight there was. It's not clear how many people were killed in these strikes. Defense Secretary Pete Hexeth was also commenting on social media. He said that he's grateful for the Nigerian government's support and cooperation, suggesting that there was coordination there. The Nigerian foreign ministry said that there was intelligence sharing that went on, amongst other things, behind this strike. But this narrative that it's primarily Christians that are being persecuted, you know, Nigeria has been grappling with insurgency for many, many years now. But experts and Nigerian officials are saying that this these attacks that are committed by insurgents are affecting both Christians and Muslims in Nigeria, not just the Christian population. And now we know this strike comes just days after the U.S. targeted ISIS in Syria and just hours after Turkey announced it had rounded up dozens of ISIS suspects. What can you tell us about sort of those aspects of this story? Yeah, so this attack on ISIS in Syria was following a killing of three American personnel in Syria. And this is an operation known as Operation the Operation Hawkeye Strikes. And this is, you know, according to U.S. CENTCOM, this struck more than 70 targets at multiple locations across central Syria with fighter jets, attack helicopters and artillery. There was assistance from the Jordanians. Donald Trump on social media said the Syrian government fully supported the strikes and that this was very serious retaliation from the United States. And there was a sense that there's a regional push to try to contain ISIS and to prevent a resurgence of the group in the area, because only yesterday Turkey also affected some more than the arrests of more than 100 people who were allegedly going to be attacking sites on Christmas and New Year. So this is clearly an issue across the region. But here we have the U.S. really ramping things up with direct strikes in Nigeria. Djigouti, thank you so much for this. That's Djigouti Adave in Washington.

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