Christmas Day strikes by the United States on northwest Nigeria targeted militants linked to an Islamic State wing largely active in neighbouring Niger, a top US Africa Command lieutenant general told reporters.
“The targets were areas that all terrorist groups from the Sahel use as a staging area. The most recent information we received from the Nigerians was it was ISIS Sahel related,” John Brennan said in an interview on the sidelines of a US-Nigeria security meeting last week, referring to the Islamic State Sahel Province group.
Analysts have been worried about ISSP’s spread from the Sahel into coastal West African countries like Nigeria.
The clarification comes on the heels of reports and public scare of the possibility of civilians also being casualties of the strikes.
United States President Donald Trump said US forces conducted “powerful and deadly” strikes against Islamic State militants in northwestern Nigeria on Christmas Day, after he warned the group to stop killing Christians in the country.
The Department of Defense said “multiple ISIS terrorists” were killed in an attack conducted at the request of Nigerian authorities, but few details were provided.
The strikes hit IS targets on Christmas Day, according to Trump.
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