U.S. military forces carried out coordinated airstrikes against ISIS-linked militants in northwestern Nigeria on Christmas Day, an operation President Donald Trump said delivered a decisive blow to the terror group.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump described the action as a “powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum,” accusing the militants of “targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries!”
According to reporting by The New York Times, the operation involved Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from a U.S. Navy vessel in the Gulf of Guinea. The strikes hit two ISIS camps in Nigeria’s Sokoto State and were conducted in coordination with Nigerian military forces.
U.S. Africa Command, or AFRICOM, confirmed that the mission was jointly executed with Nigerian authorities, adding that preliminary assessments indicated “multiple ISIS terrorists” were killed in the strikes.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth reinforced the administration’s message in a post on X, writing that “ISIS found out tonight — on Christmas,” while suggesting additional actions could follow and thanking Nigeria for its cooperation. He also reshared Department of War footage showing a missile launch from the U.S. Navy ship involved in the operation.
The Christmas Day strike followed months of escalating warnings from the Trump administration about the security situation in Nigeria, which officials have increasingly framed as a matter of protecting Christians from extremist violence.
In November, the U.S. State Department updated Nigeria’s status to a “Country of Particular Concern,” a move that came shortly after Trump publicly warned of possible military action and a suspension of U.S. aid over what he described as the persecution of Christians in the country.
U.S. surveillance flights have reportedly operated over Nigeria since late November, and earlier this month the State Department announced new visa restrictions targeting Nigerians accused of participating in or supporting violations of religious freedom, measures that could also affect immediate family members.
Nigerian officials, however, emphasized a counterterrorism rationale rather than a religious one. Foreign Minister Yusuf Maitama Tuggar characterized the strikes as a long-planned “joint operation” based on Nigerian intelligence and insisted the action “has nothing to do with a particular religion.” Information Minister Mohammed Idris similarly described the targets as ISIS strongholds used to plan large-scale attacks.
Open Doors has reported that more Christians are killed for their faith in Nigeria each year than in any other country, noting that 3,100 of the 4,476 Christians killed worldwide last year were in Nigeria alone.
The country also leads globally in abductions of Christians for religious reasons, with 2,830 of the 3,775 such kidnappings recorded worldwide, according to Open Doors’ annual World Watch List research.
