Trump bragged about his strike on ISIS yesterday in a new interview following a lengthy Truth Social post outlining the order he gave on Christmas Day.
While many were opening presents and spending time with family yesterday (December 25), Trump’s Truth Social page was very active.
One of the most surprising posts was one where Trump confirmed that the US had launched an attack on suspected ISIS terrorists in Nigeria.
In his post he wrote: “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!
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“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.
"The Department of War executed numerous perfect strikes, as only the United States is capable of doing. Under my leadership, our Country will not allow Radical Islamic Terrorism to prosper.
“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.”
On Boxing Day, Trump gave more information about this strike and gave a further explanation as to why the strike was carried out on Christmas Day.
Speaking to radio host John Catsimatidis on Friday morning (December 26) in an interview, Trump said: “I said yesterday, ‘Hit them on Christmas Day. It will be a Christmas present.'
“We hit ISIS, who are terrible. They are butchers. We really hit them hard in different locations. They really got hit hard yesterday. They got a very bad Christmas present.”
The Nigerian government has confirmed that it collaborated with Washington on the strikes, which touched down in the Sokoto state, near the border with Niger.
According to a New York Post report, the strike did kill ‘multiple ISIS terrorists’ but an official number has not been verified.
This move by Trump has proved controversial to some however, as it has been deemed only a ‘temporary measure’ for dealing with the presence of ISIS in Nigeria.
Senior analyst in the Extremism Policy Unit of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change and human rights lawyer Bulama Bukarti spoke out on Sky News following the strike.
He said: “What you need is a sustained effort led by the Nigerian government and therefore a sustained campaign will have to put Nigeria at the center.
“Build the capacity of Nigerian security forces in terms of intelligence and logistics capacity; in terms of rapid response mechanisms, which is very limited in Nigeria; and also in terms of intelligence sharing and border security.
“One-off airstrikes even if they are successful can only do limited damage to these groups and in most cases it is only temporary.”
Topics: Donald Trump, Terrorism, US News, Christmas, Politics
Gerrard Kaonga