US President Donald Trump announced that the US military had carried out strikes on the Islamic State terrorist group operating in northwestern Nigeria on his orders.
Trump called the jihadists a "low-level terrorist group" and noted that they "attacked and brutally killed mostly innocent Christians on a scale not seen in years, even centuries."
"I have previously warned these terrorists that if they did not stop killing Christians, they would pay a heavy price, and they did," the US president wrote. "The Department of War [as Trump has renamed the Pentagon] has carried out numerous perfect strikes in a way that only the United States can."
"May God bless our soldiers and everyone. MERRY CHRISTMAS, including the dead terrorists, whose number will increase much more if they do not stop killing Christians," Trump concluded.
The US president did not specify which targets were hit.
The US Africa Command (AFRICOM) announced on social media that the strikes were carried out "at the request of the Nigerian authorities."
According to AFRICOM, the strikes killed "multiple ISIS terrorists."
