Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, on Wednesday praised recent efforts by the US military to counter the Islamic State amid its ongoing attack on Nigerians, especially Christians in the West African country.
The secretary, in a statement posted on the department’s website, recalled how President Donald Trump charged the War Department to take steps to protect the persecuted Christians, who the US said compose roughly one-half of Nigeria’s population.
“Maybe a year ago, (the president) heard the call of Nigerian Christians who were being targeted and killed by ISIS. … And he said, ‘Pete, I want the War Department to focus on ensuring that we do everything we can to protect those Christians,’” Hegseth explained.
He added that while forming the partnerships necessary to execute such a mission could take time behind the scenes, the president remained persistent, until the proper assets were eventually put in place.
“And, over the past month and there hasn’t been much coverage of this, we killed ISIS’ No. 2 (commander), who was most responsible for killing Christians and trying to target the US homeland,” Hegseth said.
On May 16, US Africa Command announced via a press release that, at the direction of the president and secretary of war, US forces had conducted an operation that day against ISIS elements in Northeastern Nigeria.
“The command’s initial assessment is that multiple terrorists, to include Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, the director of global operations for ISIS, as well as other senior ISIS leaders, were killed during this operation. No US service members were harmed,” the statement read at the time.
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