Nigeria signals more strikes likely in 'joint' US operations

The west African country faces multiple interlinked security crises in its north, where jihadists have been waging an insurgency in the northeast since 2009 and armed "bandit" gangs raid villages and stage kidnappings in the northwest.

The US strikes come after Abuja and Washington were locked in a diplomatic dispute over what Trump characterised as the mass killing of Christians amid Nigeria's myriad armed conflicts.

Nigeria's military said in a statement that its forces, in conjunction with the United States "conducted precision strike operations against identified foreign ISIS-linked elements" in northwest Nigeria.

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.

"It's Nigeria that provided the intelligence," the country's foreign minister, Yusuf Tuggar, told broadcaster Channels TV, saying he was on the phone with US State Secretary Marco Rubio ahead of the bombardment.

Asked if there would be more strikes, Tuggar said: "It is an ongoing thing, and we are working with the US. We are working with other countries as well."
Targets unclear
The Department of Defense's US Africa Command, using an acronym for the Islamic State group, said "multiple ISIS terrorists" were killed in an attack in the northwestern state of Sokoto.

US defence officials later posted video of what appeared to be the nighttime launch of a missile from the deck of a battleship flying the US flag.

Residents in the far-flung villages of Sokoto state which borders junta-ruled Niger, said they were shocked by the blasts.

"We heard a loud explosion which shook the whole town and everyone was scared," said Haruna Kallah, a Jabo resident, some 100 kilometres from the state capital Sokoto in Tambuwal district.

"We initially thought it was attack by Lakurawa (an armed group linked to ISIS in the Sahel)," he said. "But later learnt that it was a US drone attack which surprised us because this area has never been a Lakurawa enclave and we have never had any attacks in the last two years."

Which of Nigeria's myriad armed groups were targeted remains unclear.

Nigeria's jihadist groups are mostly concentrated in the northeast, but have made inroads into the northwest.

Researchers have recently linked some members from 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, though research on Lakurawa is complicated as the term has been used to describe various armed fighters in the northwest.

Those described as Lakurawa also reportedly have links to al-Qaeda affiliated group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), a rival group to ISSP.

While Abuja has welcomed the strikes, "I think Trump would not have accepted a 'No' from Nigeria," said Malik Samuel, an Abuja-based researcher for Good Governance Africa, an NGO.

Amid the diplomatic pressure, 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".

Tuggar said that Nigerian President Bola Tinubu "gave the go-ahead" for the strikes.

The foreign minister added: "It must be made clear that it is a joint operation, and it is not targeting any religion nor simply in the name of one religion or the other."