Nigeria on Friday signalled that more strikes against jihadist groups were expected after a Christmas Day attack by US forces that President Donald Trump said “decimated” Islamic State-linked camps they targeted in the northwest of the country.Nigeria insisted it was a joint operation, saying that it provided intelligence for Thursday’s attack. The US military said the strikes killed multiple IS fighters. A Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that the strikes “were approved by the government of Nigeria,” without saying whether Nigeria’s military had been involved. Trump said in an interview published Friday that the strikes had been scheduled earlier than Thursday, “And I said, ‘nope, let’s give a Christmas present.'”They didn’t think that was coming, but we hit them hard. Every camp got decimated,” he told Politico.Nigeria, located in west Africa, faces interlinked security crises, with jihadists waging an insurgency in the northeast since 2009 and armed gangs raiding villages and staging kidnappings in the northwest.The strikes came after Abuja and Washington have been locked in a diplomatic dispute over what Trump has characterised as the mass killing of Christians amid Nigeria’s myriad armed conflicts.Questions remain over which armed group was targeted, and details over the strikes have varied between Nigerian and US accounts.Washington’s framing of the violence as amounting to Christian “persecution” is rejected by the Nigerian government and independent analysts, but has nonetheless resulted in increased security coordination.US defence officials posted a video of what appeared to be a nighttime missile launch from the deck of a battleship flying the US flag.”It’s Nigeria that provided the intelligence,” the country’s foreign minister, Yusuf Tuggar, told broadcaster Channels TV, saying he had been on the phone with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio ahead of the strikes.Asked if there would be more strikes, Tuggar said: “It is an ongoing thing” adding “it must be made clear that it is a joint operation, and it is not targeting any religion.”- Targets unclear -Nigerian information minister Mohammed Idris said in a statement that the US strikes used 16 guided munitions launched from medium-altitude MQ-9 Reaper drones “successfully neutralising” IS elements attempting to penetrate Nigeria through the Sahel.Both countries said the strikes targeted militants linked to the Islamic State group, without providing details.The Department of Defense’s US Africa Command said “multiple ISIS terrorists” were killed in an attack in the northwestern state of Sokoto.Residents in Sokoto told AFP they were shocked by the blasts, saying some strikes hit a town that was not a militant stronghold.Nigeria’s armed groups are mostly concentrated in the northeast, but have made inroads into the northwest.Researchers have recently linked some members of an armed group known as Lakurawa — the main jihadist group located in Sokoto State — to Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP), which is mostly active in neighbouring Niger and Mali.Other analysts have disputed those links.”We initially thought it was (an) attack by Lakurawa,” said Haruna Kallah, a resident of Jabo town.That the explosions were in fact the result of a US strike “surprised us because this area has never been a Lakurawa enclave.”Tukur Shehu, a resident of Tangaza, a neighbouring district, said two strikes targeted villages known to house Lakurawa camps from where they launch attacks and keep hostages.- Public opinion divided -While public opinion on the strikes appeared split, the Nigerian government publicly welcomed them.”I think Trump would not have accepted a ‘No,'” said Malik Samuel, an Abuja-based researcher for Good Governance Africa, an NGO.Nigerian authorities are keen to be seen as cooperating with the US, Samuel told AFP, even though “both the perpetrators and the victims in the northwest are overwhelmingly Muslim.”Security analyst Brant Philip said the results of the strikes were “not significant, but much is expected soon.”tba-sn-nro-str-abu/jh/msp/bgs

Christmas under Donald Trump brought air strikes abroad and political threats at home, as the US president used the holiday to project a vision of power rooted less in peace than grievance, even as aides leaned into their Christian faith.On Tuesday and Wednesday, the president flooded his Truth Social feed with posts that ditched the usual holiday cheer. Instead of goodwill to all, Trump announced military action against jihadists in Nigeria and hurled insults at his enemies.Trump said Friday that the strikes, conducted the day before, had “decimated” jihadist camps in northern Nigeria, describing the operation as a surprise blow delivered as a “Christmas present.”In an interview with Politico, the president said he had personally delayed the action until Thursday to catch militants off guard — hitting “every camp” involved.The strikes, he said, were retaliation for a “slaughter of Christians” in the west African nation. Then came a caustic Christmas greeting aimed at his political rivals, branding them “radical leftist scum.”On Thursday, Trump dropped an even darker line: “Enjoy what may be your last Merry Christmas.” The cryptic warning appeared to hint at Democrats he believes will be exposed when files tied to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein are all released.The White House, by contrast, issued a traditional message later that day — heavy on scripture — signed by the president and First Lady Melania Trump.The statement invoked God seven times, celebrating “the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ” and praying for “God’s abiding love, divine mercy, and everlasting peace.”Trump has long claimed credit for restoring “Merry Christmas” to public life, accusing his first-term predecessor Barack Obama of pushing “Happy Holidays” — a greeting seen as more inclusive of multiple faiths. In reality, Obama regularly said “Merry Christmas.” This year, though, Trump skipped formal worship entirely. The official schedule shows the 79-year-old billionaire spent the holiday at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida without attending church.Across the administration, Christmas messaging leaned hard into Christianity. The Homeland Security Department urged Americans to “remember the miracle of Christ’s birth,” while Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted a nativity scene and spoke of “the hope of Eternal Life through Christ.” – ‘Always… a Christian nation’ -The Pentagon even hosted its first-ever Christmas Mass on December 17.Religious language is nothing new in the politics of the United States — a country that calls itself “one nation under God.” But the First Amendment bars any official creed. That hasn’t stopped Vice President JD Vance from pushing Christian doctrine into every corner of policy, from diplomacy to immigration.”A true Christian politics, it cannot just be about the protection of the unborn… It must be at the heart of our full understanding of government,” he told a recent rally organized by the conservative group Turning Point USA.”We have been, and by the grace of God, we always will be, a Christian nation,” Vance added. The crowd roared.Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, offers a disciplined Christian nationalist vision. But Trump’s version is more personal — and messianic.In his January inauguration speech, he claimed God saved him from assassination so he could fulfill America’s destiny. Since then, he has sold $60 “God Bless The USA” Bibles, launched a White House Office of Faith under televangelist Paula White, and posted photos of himself praying at his desk, pastors hovering around him.Trump, never known as a committed churchgoer, now speaks often of his own salvation. “I want to try and get to heaven if possible,” he told Fox News in August, suggesting brokering peace in Ukraine might help. At other moments, however, he has sounded far less confident.”I hear I’m not doing well — I hear I’m really at the bottom of the totem pole!” he has said, again linking any improvement in his prospects to a potential peace deal in Ukraine.His bleakest assessment came on October 15, when he remarked: “I don’t think there’s anything that’s going to get me into heaven.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is to meet President Donald Trump in Florida this weekend, but Russia accused him and his EU backers Friday of seeking to “torpedo” a US-brokered plan to stop the fighting.Sunday’s meeting to discuss new peace proposals comes amidst Trump’s intensified efforts to broker an agreement on Europe’s worst conflict since World War II which has killed tens of thousands since February 2022.The latest plan is a 20-point proposal that would freeze the war on its current front line but open the door for Ukraine to pull back troops from the east, where demilitarised buffer zones could be created, according to details revealed by Zelensky this week.Zelensky’s office said a meeting with Trump is planned for Sunday in Florida, where the US leader has a home.Trump, speaking to news outlet Politico, said about Zelensky’s plan that “he doesn’t have anything until I approve it”, adding: “So we’ll see what he’s got.” Zelensky meanwhile said he held telephone talks on Friday with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and a host of other European leaders, ahead of his latest diplomatic foray. A spokesperson for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the leaders “reiterated their unshakeable commitment for a just and lasting peace for Ukraine and the importance that talks continue to progress towards this in the coming days”.- Security guarantees -The new plan formulated with Ukraine’s input is Kyiv’s most explicit acknowledgement yet of possible territorial concessions, and is very different to an initial 28-point proposal tabled by Washington last month that adhered to many of Russia’s core demands.Part of the plan includes separate US-Ukraine bilateral agreements on security guarantees, reconstruction and the economy. Zelensky said those were changing on a daily basis.”We will discuss these documents, security guarantees,” he said of Sunday’s meeting.”As for sensitive issues, we will discuss (the eastern region of) Donbas and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, and we will certainly discuss other issues,” he added.Russia signalled its opposition to the plan ahead of the Florida talks.The Kremlin said Friday that foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov had held telephone talks with US officials, and deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov criticised Zelensky’s stance.- Russia accuses EU -“Our ability to make the final push and reach an agreement will depend on our own work and the political will of the other party,” Ryabkov said on Russian television.”Especially in a context where Kyiv and its sponsors — notably within the European Union, who are not in favour of an agreement — have stepped up efforts to torpedo it.”He said the proposal drawn up with Zelensky input “differs radically” from points initially drawn up by US and Russian officials in contacts this month.”Without an adequate resolution of the problems at the origin of this crisis, it will be quite simply impossible to reach a definitive accord,” Ryabkov added.He said any deal had to “remain within the limits” fixed by Trump and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin when they met in Alaska in August, or else “no accord can be reached”.Zelensky said this week there was still disagreements between Kyiv and Washington over the two core issues of territory and and the status of the Zaporizhzhia plant.Washington has pushed Ukraine to withdraw from the 20 percent of the eastern Donetsk region that it still controls — Russia’s main territorial demand.It has also proposed joint US-Ukrainian-Russian control of Zaporizhzhia, Europe’s largest nuclear plant that Russia seized during the invasion.Zelensky said he could only give up more land if the Ukrainian people agree to it in a referendum, and he does not want Russian participation in the nuclear plant.Ukraine did appear to have won some concessions in the new plan, which, according to Zelensky, removed a requirement for Kyiv to legally renounce its bid to join NATO as well as previous clauses on territory seized by Russia since 2014 being recognised as belonging to Moscow.Moscow has however shown little inclination to abandon its hardline territorial demands that Ukraine fully withdraw from Donbas and end efforts to join NATO.It also wants a ban on Western countries deploying peacekeeping troops in Ukraine and sweeping political and military restrictions that Kyiv says are tantamount to capitulation.Zelensky said Ukrainian negotiators were not directly in touch with Moscow, but that the United States acted as intermediary and was awaiting Russia’s response to the latest proposal.”I think we will know their official response in the coming days,” Zelensky said.He expressed scepticism over whether Moscow genuinely wanted to halt its invasion. “Russia is always looking for reasons not to agree,” he said.