US airstrikes in Nigeria on Christmas Day were aided by intelligence provided by the Nigerian government, the country’s foreign minister said on Friday.
Donald Trump had announced the strikes against Islamic State militants in north-west Nigeria after spending weeks decrying the group for targeting Christians.
Nigeria’s foreign minister, Yusuf Tuggar, said on Friday that he had had “extensive” phone conversations with Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, before and after the attack.
He said Nigeria’s president, Bola Tinubu, had given the “go-ahead” for the airstrikes. Tuggar did not rule out further strikes, describing them as an “ongoing process” that would also involve other countries.
In an interview with the BBC, Tuggar insisted the strikes had “nothing to do with a particular religion”. He said the operation did not have “anything to do with Christmas, it could be any other day – it is to do with attacking terrorists who have been killing Nigerians”.
US warns of more Nigeria strikes
The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, warned of more strikes against Islamic State targets in north-western Nigeria, hours after the US military took action against militant camps in what Donald Trump has characterised as efforts to stop the killing of Christians.
Hegseth wrote on X: “The president was clear last month: the killing of innocent Christians in Nigeria (and elsewhere) must end. The [Pentagon] is always ready, so ISIS found out tonight – on Christmas. More to come…”
Trump supporters hail US strikes in Nigeria as ‘amazing Christmas present’
The US’s Christmas Day strikes against Islamic State targets in Nigeria were met with praise by Donald Trump supporters who for months had been agitating for the president to respond forcefully to the killings of Christians in the country.
“I can’t think of a better way to celebrate Christmas than by avenging the death of Christians through the justified mass killing of Islamic terrorists,” the far-right political activist Laura Loomer posted on X. “You’ve got to love it! Death to all Islamic terrorists! Thank you.”
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Exclusive: UK campaigner targeted by Trump speaks out
A British anti-disinformation campaigner told by the Trump administration that he faces possible removal from the US has said he is being targeted by arrogant and “sociopathic” tech companies for trying to hold them to account.
Zelenskyy to hold more crunch talks with Trump on Sunday
Volodymyr Zelenskyy is to travel to the US for a planned meeting with Donald Trump on Sunday, as Washington continues to push for a possible peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow.
The Ukrainian president said the visit would take place at a location in Florida – widely expected to be Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort – in what would be the latest development in a diplomatic push that began in November with the circulation of a 28-point US plan shaped with input from Russian officials.
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What else we’re reading today:
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Janessa Goldbeck, a US Marines veteran, in 2023 consulted on a documentary that war-gamed a presidential candidate staging a military coup. In 2024, she advised local leaders on the hypothetical of troops being deployed to their streets for immigration enforcement. Then Donald Trump won and Goldbeck’s nightmare came true. In an interview with the Guardian, the chief executive of Vet Voice Foundation said: “It’s a little surreal to see something that we’ve been talking about and thinking about and stressing out about.”
Read the full story: How an ex-US marine became vital in the fight against Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement
Catching up? Here’s what happened on 25 December 2025.
