In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said the strike was launched at his direction as commander in chief. He claimed the operation targeted ISIL fighters who he said had been killing civilians, particularly Christians, in the region.

“Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS terrorist scum in northwest Nigeria,” Trump said, adding that he had previously warned the group to stop the violence.

The US military’s Africa Command, US Africa Command, said the strike was conducted at the request of Nigerian authorities and resulted in the killing of “multiple ISIS terrorists”.

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth thanked the Nigerian government for its cooperation and warned that more action could follow, without giving further details.

In a statement, AFRICOM said the strike took place in what it referred to as “Soboto state”, an apparent reference to Sokoto State.

The operation comes weeks after Trump said he had ordered the Pentagon to plan for possible military action in Nigeria following claims of persecution of Christians. Nigeria’s government has previously rejected those assertions, saying armed groups target both Muslim and Christian communities and that the situation is more complex than portrayed.

Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed early on Friday that the country was engaged in structured security cooperation with international partners, including the United States, to counter terrorism and violent extremism. It said this cooperation had led to precision air strikes on terrorist targets in the northwest.

Reporting from Lagos, Al Jazeera correspondent Ahmed Idris said images circulating on social media showed missile fragments near a village in Sokoto State, but there were no reports of casualties. He noted that Sokoto is a predominantly Muslim state and is not commonly associated with large-scale attacks on Christians.

From Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Shihab Rattansi said the threat of US military action in Nigeria had been building for some time. He added that the strike, announced on Christmas Day while Trump was at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, was likely to resonate strongly with Trump’s Christian evangelical support base.