President Donald Trump announced Christmas evening that he had ordered a "powerful and deadly strike" against Islamic State terrorists in Nigeria.
The president posted on his social media site that the ISIS terrorists have been “targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even centuries!"
The president’s post did not include information about how the strike was carried out and what effects it had and the White House did not immediately provide further details.
Last month, Trump said he'd ordered the Pentagon to begin planning for potential military action in Nigeria following reports of Christian persecution. The U.S. recently designated Nigeria a "country of particular concern" under the International Religious Freedom Act.
Bob Maginnis is a national defense analyst and president of Maginnis Strategies, LLC. He says the strikes were launched from off-shore platforms.
"They fired on Christmas Day 16 Tomahawks that were guided by drones that were overhead the leadership facilities, in the northern part of Nigeria. So, this is something that evidently they threatened to continue to do if in fact the Islamist group doesn't back down."
Indeed, Trump says there will be “many more” such strikes against ISIS “if their slaughter of Christians continues.”
Maginnis says overall this is a good bang for our buck.
"Keep in mind we don't have troops on the ground, we don't have troops in Nigeria, and we have the endorsement of the local sovereign government, so I think for the most part this is low risk for us, but it sends a very clear message not only to ISIS in Africa but other radical groups around the world that we're willing to take decisive action, albeit we don't want to be members of an ongoing war."
