Africa

US missiles against Isis positions in Nigeria. Trump: 'Perfect attacks'

The American president wrote on his social Truth: "Under my leadership, our country will not allow radical Islamic terrorism to flourish."

26 December 2025

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Un missile viene lanciato da un'imbarcazione militare in una località non identificata, in questo screenshot ottenuto da un video diffuso dal Dipartimento della Guerra il 25 dicembre 2025. U.S. Department of War Via X/Handout via REUTERS

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

"Tonight, at my direction as Commander-in-Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly attack against the Isis terrorist scum in northwestern Nigeria, brutally targeting and killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen in many years, and even centuries." This was written on Truth by the President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, during the European night.

"The War Department has executed numerous perfect attacks, as only the United States is capable of doing," the tycoon added. "May God bless our armed forces and Merry Christmas to all, including the dead terrorists, who will be many more if they continue to slaughter Christians," he added.

"Under my leadership, our country will not allow radical Islamic terrorism to flourish," Trump wrote again on social, continuing, "I had already warned these terrorists that if they did not stop slaughtering Christians, they would pay a very high price, and tonight it happened."

Usa, attacco in Nigeria: il video pubblicato dal Pentagono

Nigeria provided intelligence

Nigeria provided the United States with intelligence information on jihadists ahead of US raids against Islamic State militants in northwestern Nigeria. "It was Nigeria that provided the intelligence information," Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar told local television network ChannelsTV, saying he had heard by phone from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. "We spoke twice. We talked for 19 minutes before the attack and then we talked again for another five minutes before it started."

Version also confirmed by the Pentagon. "The War Department worked with the government of Nigeria on the attacks, which were approved" by the country's authorities, a US spokesman said.

Witnesses in Nigeria: US raid hit camp, shrapnel everywhere

Residents of the village of Jabo, in Sokoto State, northwestern Nigeria, testified to Al Jazeera that one of the US airstrikes overnight caused no casualties, but caused an explosion in a field. Abdulrahman Mainasara, a resident of Jabo, explained that the attack hit an already cultivated farmland behind a primary school on the outskirts of the village. Abdulrahman visited the scene last night, took some photos and saw some locals carrying debris from the scene. "The bomb (missile) fell and exploded into many pieces. There were two large pieces of debris. One of them was carried by two people," he told Al Jazeera. Another resident, Ismail Umar, said thatthe community has not suffered armed attacks for more than two years. Although the armed fighters, known locally as bandits, operate in north-west Nigeria, their operations are mainly concentrated in the eastern part of Sokoto State and not in the southern part of the state, where the US has attacked, Al Jazeera commented.

Analysts, no evidence that Christians are killed more than Muslims

Groups monitoring the violence in Nigeria say that there is no evidence to suggest that Christians are killed more than Muslims in the African country, which is more or less evenly divided between the followers of the two religions. The BBC points this out after tonight's US raids against Isis, announced by Trump as a response to the 'massacre of Christians' in the African country. Earlier,Daniel Bwala, advisor to Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, stated thatjihadists do not target members of any particular religion and that they have killed people of all faiths. And President Tinubu himself insisted that the security challenges were affecting people 'of all faiths and from all regions'.

Jihadist groups such as Boko Haram and the Islamic State of West Africa Province have been wreaking chaos in northeastern Nigeria for more than a decade, killing thousands of people, most of them Muslims, according to Acled, a group that analyses political violence around the world. In central Nigeria, there are frequent clashes between mostly Muslim herders and groups of farmers, often Christians, over access to water and grazing land.The deadly rounds of 'eye-for-an-eye' attacks in the country have claimed thousands of lives, but atrocities have been committed on both sides. Human rights organisations say there is no evidence that Christians have been disproportionately targeted.