U.S. airstrikes in northern Nigeria will continue as long as terrorists and bandits keep killing Christians, President Donald Trump warns.

The U.S. leader stated this in an Interview with The New York Times published on Thursday.

“I’d love to make it a one-time strike,” Mr Trump said, “But if they continue to kill Christians, it will be a many-time strike.”

Mr Trump announced on Christmas Day that the United States military, at his direction, carried out a series of airstrikes against terrorist targets in the northern part of Nigeria, marking America’s first kinetic action in the West African 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.”

Mr Trump described the military strikes as a gift.

“I said yesterday, ‘Hit them on Christmas Day.’ It will be a Christmas present,” Mr Trump told WABC radio host John Catsimatidis in an interview on Friday.

The American president said the U.S. army hit terrorists hard in different locations during the Christmas Day strikes.

“We hit ISIS, who are terrible. They are butchers. We really hit them hard in different locations. They really got hit hard yesterday. They got a very bad Christmas present,” Mr Trump said.