U.S. Bombs Nigeria Amid Dispute Over Claims of Christian Persecution

The United States on Thursday carried out air and missile strikes on alleged ISIS targets in northwest Nigeria in what was described by Nigerian officials as a joint operation coordinated with U.S. Africa Command. President Donald Trump said the strike targeted ISIS militants he claims have been killing Christians. Nigerian authorities emphasized that the operation was not religiously motivated and the targeted armed groups kill both Muslims and Christians. “It is a regional conflict, it is not a Nigeria Christian–Muslim conflict,” said Nigeria’s Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar after the strikes. Earlier this week, five Muslim Nigerians were killed and thirty five more wounded when a bomb exploded during evening prayers at a packed mosque in Maiduguri, where Muslims are frequently killed by IEDs manufactured by the radical Wahhabi terror group Boko Haram and its offshoot, Islamic State West Africa Province. Trump warned on Truth Social that if the Nigerian government “continues to allow the killing of Christians,” the U.S. would end all aid to the country. The Nigerian government denies that it permits the murder of Christians.