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Posts Tagged ‘war’

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US says it struck Islamic State militants in northwest Nigeria

In Local News on December 26, 2025 at 8:57 am

By Trevor Hunnicutt, Idrees Ali, and Surbhi Misra

December 26, 20254:57 AM ESTUpdated 1 hour ago

Summary

  • Nigeria says “joint operation” with US targeted “terrorists”
  • Trump says “deadly strike against ISIS”
  • Trump has warned of threat to Christians in West African country
  • Nigeria does not rule out further joint-strikes

PALM BEACH, Florida, Dec 25 (Reuters) – The United States carried out a strike against Islamic State militants in northwest Nigeria at the request of Nigeria’s government, President Donald Trump and the U.S. military said on Thursday, claiming the group had been targeting Christians in the region.

“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!,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

The U.S. military’s Africa Command said the strike was carried out in Sokoto state in coordination with Nigerian authorities and killed multiple ISIS militants.

Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Maitama Tuggar told the British Broadcasting Corp the strike was a “joint operation” targeting “terrorists”, and it “has nothing to do with a particular religion”.

Without naming ISIS specifically, Tuggar said the operation had been planned “for quite some time” and had used intelligence information provided by the Nigerian side. He did not rule out further strikes, adding that this depended on “decisions to be taken by the leadership of the two countries”.

The strike comes after Trump, in late October, began warning that Christianity faces an “existential threat” in Nigeria and threatened to militarily intervene in the West African country over what he says is its failure to stop violence targeting Christian communities.

Reuters reported on Monday the U.S. had been conducting intelligence-gathering flights over large parts of Nigeria since late November.

‘MORE TO COME’

Nigeria’s foreign ministry said the strike was carried out as part of ongoing security cooperation with the United States, involving intelligence sharing and strategic coordination to target militant groups.

“This has led to precision hits on terrorist targets in Nigeria by air strikes in the North West,” the ministry said in a post on X.

A video posted by the Pentagon showed at least one projectile launched from a warship. A U.S. defense official said the strike targeted multiple militants at known ISIS camps.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth thanked the Nigerian government on X for its support and cooperation and added: “More to come…”

Nigeria’s government has said armed groups target both Muslims and Christians, and U.S. claims that Christians face persecution do not represent the complex security situation and ignore efforts to safeguard religious freedom. But it has agreed to work with the U.S. to bolster its forces against militant groups.

The country’s population is split between Muslims living primarily in the north and Christians in the south.

Police said earlier on Thursday a suspected suicide bomber killed at least five people and injured 35 others at a mosque in Nigeria’s northeast, another region troubled by Islamist insurgents.

In a Christmas message posted on X earlier, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu called for peace in his country, “especially between individuals of differing religious beliefs.”

He also said: “I stand committed to doing everything within my power to enshrine religious freedom in Nigeria and to protect Christians, Muslims, and all Nigerians from violence.”

Trump issued his statement on the strike on Christmas Day while he was at his Palm Beach, Florida, Mar-a-Lago Club, where he has been spending the holiday. He had no public events during the day and was last seen by the reporters traveling with him on Wednesday night.

The U.S. military last week launched separate large-scale strikes against dozens of Islamic State targets in Syria, after Trump vowed to hit back in the wake of a suspected ISIS attack on U.S. personnel in the country.

Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, Idrees Ali, Surbhi Misra and Simon Lewis; additional reporting by Donna Bryson and Maria Tsvetkova; Editing by Chris Reese and Michael Perry

(This feature appears courtesy of Reuters news service. Full story here.)

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Iran: Obama’s Potential Holy War

In Economy, National News, Opinion, Politics, Religion on March 6, 2012 at 1:08 am

Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Obama at The White House.(Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

By Gery L. Deer

Deer In Headlines

 

How difficult it is to imagine that in the modern world, entire civilizations are still willing to bomb each other out of existence over religious rhetoric and what they believe to be holy territories. Human civilization may simply be doomed to destroy itself once and for all because of ancient tribal god images and a twisted belief in a kind of manifest destiny.

Apparently Man has learned nothing from his past, a millennium of history soaked in the blood of countless millions all in the name of “god.” The Crusades, for example, consisted of seven separate Christian campaigns, lasting from 1095 until 1291 and costing the lives of hundreds of thousands.

Hitler’s mass extermination of Jews, a quintessential catalyst for World War II, was religiously motivated, albeit orchestrated nearly single-handed by a madman. Even the American Revolution had its roots in religious freedoms.

Muslims, Jews, Christians, it doesn’t matter who it is, they are all the same; it’s their God or no ones. If you don’t believe their way, they’ll start a war, take the land and force the survivors to capitulate or be exterminated.

That kind of extremism might seem foreign to Americans, but it has happened in the “land of the free” as well, perpetrated by our own citizens, all in the name of a higher power. If you don’t think so, just mention the idea to the next Native American you meet and see what he or she has to say about the subject. Their people, culture and religions were all but wiped out, mostly by people claiming to be Christians; an ugly black eye on the history ofAmericaand Christianity.

Today, as theUnited Statesstands poised once again in a stand-off with yet another militant nation (Iran) steeped in religious fanaticism, the stakes are higher than ever. President Obama has already toldIsraelthat theU.S.is committed to denyingIrana nuclear weapon, which is like a triple-dog dare to the likes ofIran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Ahmadinejad has already said thatIranwould not hesitate to execute a pre-emptive attack against any enemy. A nuclear arsenal would not only give them the power to keep even theU.S.at bay, but neighboring countries would likely surrender just to avoid the possibility of starting a war no one could win.

IfIrandoes have nuclear weapons capability and provides that technology to operatives sympathetic to Al Qaeda, the next terrorist attack onU.S.soil could see casualties in the millions. Of course, these same arguments were made by President George W. Bush to gain support for invadingIraq, which, as it turns out had no weapons of mass destruction.

Iranis different however, in that there is solid evidence of advanced uranium enrichment and testing of missiles to carry the nuclear warheads, in fact the Iranians revel in boasting about what they’ve accomplished.

Some sayIran’s threats are merely saber rattling in an attempt to loosen more than a decade of embargos against the country. That could be, but it could also be a definite threat byIranto the rest of the region, particularlyIsrael, and a warning to theUnited Statesto stay out of their way.

The president is threatening military intervention to protectIsraelas well as other interests in the region. But should he? What has to happen for the president to commit resources and manpower to endingIran’s nuclear development programs?

Unfortunately, just as it was during each of the previous Mid-East conflicts, the situation is just as much about oil as it is religion. We need it, and they have it. Oil rich and power poor,Iranmust sell its oil to have money to at once feed itself and buy more weapons.

One thing is certain, Americans are tired of war. The president and members of congress will most likely need to weigh the politics against the benefits of a military move againstIran, pre-emptive or otherwise. Whatever happens, it is clear that peaceful coexistence is simply not an option when dealing with religious extremism.

 

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