US Launches Strike Against Islamic State in Nigeria, Trump Confirms

Washington DC: US President Donald Trump has said that US launched a "powerful and deadly strike" against the Islamic State (IS) in north-western Nigeria.

He said that the US military executed numerous perfect strikes, while the US Africa Command (Africom) later reported that Thursday's attack was carried out in coordination with Nigeria in the Sokoto state.

According to reports by international media, Nigeria's foreign ministry confirmed that the two countries had coordinated on the strike.

For the last several months, Trump has focused on the issues faced by the Christian community in Nigeria. Earlier, he had warned that the US would enter Nigeria "guns blazing" to protect the Christian population in Africa's most populated country.

For years, the West African country has struggled with persistent security challenges stemming from multiple sources. Some of these involve attacks fueled by religious motivations, while others emerge from communal and ethnic tensions, as well as conflicts between farmers and herders over scarce natural resources.

Experts and analysts note that both Christians and Muslims—the country’s two largest religious communities in a nation of over 230 million—have fallen victim to attacks carried out by radical Islamist groups.