Trump announces U.S. strikes on Islamists in Nigeria

The U.S. struck at Islamic State targets in Nigeria on Christmas Day, President Trump posted on social media Thursday evening.

Mr. Trump said the attacks were in retaliation for the Islamist group’s years of attacks on Christian civilians in the African nation.

“Tonight, 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!” he wrote. 

Mr. Trump noted that he had given warning that the U.S. would not stand by and allow what some have characterized as a genocide or ethnic cleansing to happen.

“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,” he said.

The president said without elaborating on the targets that the strikes had succeeded.

He closed his post on Truth Social with a characteristically Trumpian touch.

“May God Bless our Military, and MERRY CHRISTMAS to all, including the dead Terrorists, of which there will be many more if their slaughter of Christians continues,” Mr. Trump wrote.