“Terrorist scum, I warned them” says the US president. The Nigerian government confirms the attacks. Pentagon: attack at Abuja’s request.
The United States they hit targets Islamic State in Nigeria with a series of targeted air raids, claimed directly by the president Donald Trump. The operation, conducted under his authorization as commander in chief, targeted jihadist positions in the north of the country, where the ISIS galaxy has intensified massacres against civilians, in particular against Christian communities. In a message released on the Truth platform, Trump spoke of an action «powerful and lethal» against what he defined «the terrorist scum of ISIS“, accused of having reached levels of brutality “not seen for years, if not for centuries”. The president claimed to have issued a preventive warning to the militiamen, promising severe consequences if the violence did not cease. «This evening they paid a very high price», he wrote, praising the War Department for having led «perfect attacks», presented as a demonstration of US military capability. His message did not miss an explicit reference to Christmas, accompanied by a threat: the operations will continue if the killings of Christians continue.
The official confirmation also came from US Africa Command (Africom), who spoke of an action carried out at the request of the Nigerian authorities and which ended with the killing of several ISIS fighters. In a note published on X, the military command underlined that the raids demonstrate «the strength of the US Army» and Washington’s determination to neutralize terrorist threats aimed at the United States, both at home and abroad. For its part, the Foreign Ministry in Abuja clarified that the attacks were carried out in close coordination with the United Statesconfirming bilateral cooperation on security. He also intervened to reinforce the message Pete Hegsethhead of the Pentagon, who reiterated that the American administration considers the killing of innocent civilians in Nigeria and other crisis theaters unacceptable. «The War Department is always ready», he wrote, hinting that further developments could follow. The target of the raids wasISIS-West Africa (ISIS-WA), one of the bloodiest joints in the Islamic State. Active since 2015, the group was born from the split of Boko Haramwhen part of the Nigerian jihadist organization swore allegiance to the Caliphate, changing its name and strategy. Since then, ISIS-WA has progressively consolidated its control over large portions of territory, causing thousands of deaths and an enormous number of displaced people Nigeria and in Neighboring countries.
The group’s area of action is mainly concentrated in the north-east of Nigeria, but its operations extend to the entire basin of Lake Chadalong the borders with Cameroon, Chad and Niger. Estimates speak of a strength between 6,000 hey 7,000 fightersa figure that highlights the scale of the threat in a region where national armies suffer from structural, logistical and coordination deficiencies. On the military level, ISIS-WA has developed an increasingly complex operational repertoire: ambushes against convoyscoordinated assaults on bases, systematic use of explosive devices improvise, kidnappings And targeted killings. The militiamen have light weapons, rocket launcher, mines And armed vehiclessign of one logistical capacity superior to that of many local forces. The privileged targets remain the armed forces and self-defense militias, but the group also strikes state infrastructure, foreign humanitarian workers – often kidnapped for ransom – And Christian communities or civilians accused of hostility towards his interpretation of sharia. The organization also fuels sectarian violence and exploits a socio-economic context marked by endemic poverty, youth unemployment and deep social fractures. In many rural areas, the absence of the state creates room for maneuver that jihadists easily occupy, strengthening recruitment. Not surprisingly, in February 2018 the US Department of State he entered ISIS-WA on the list of foreign terrorist organizations, designating two of its former leaders as global terrorists, Abu Musab al-Barnawi And Abu Abdullahi Umar al-Barnawi. The US raids are therefore part of a broader framework of combating a threat which, despite years of military operations, continues to demonstrate resilience and adaptive capacity, maintaining high pressure on the security of the entire West Africa.
