President Donald Trump has announced that the United States military, at his direction, carried out a series of air strikes against terrorist targets in the northern part of Nigeria, marking America’s first kinetic action in the West Africa country.

“Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even centuries!” Mr Trump said in a statement on Truth Social late on Thursday. 

The announcement came days after news broke that the U.S. government had been conducting intelligence-gathering flights over Nigerian airspace since November, following President Donald Trump’s threat of a military invasion of Nigeria to eliminate terrorists killing Christians.

Speaking further, the American leaders added, “I have previously warned these terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was.

“The Department of War executed numerous perfect strikes, as only the United States is capable of doing. Under my leadership, our Country will not allow Radical Islamic Terrorism to prosper.”

It was not immediately clear whether Nigerian President Bola Tinubu had given the Nigerian government’s approval for the strikes, and Mr Trump’s statement was silent on whether U.S. troops had received permission to conduct the operation.

A spokesman for the Nigerian government did not immediately return a request seeking comment on Thursday night.