US Missiles Hit Two Nigerian Villages Far From Intended Target: Nigerian Government

Two villages in Nigeria that were hit by US missiles as part of the first US strikes in Nigeria launched on Christmas Day were not the intended target, according to a statement from the Nigerian government.

On Friday, Nigeria’s Information Minister Mohammed Idris said the strikes, which were launched by a US warship in the Gulf of Guinea, targeted “two major Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist enclaves” in the forests of the Tangaza district in Nigeria’s northwest Sokoto State, an area that’s not known as a hub for ISIS-affiliated militants, raising questions about why it was the US’s first target.

Idris also said that debris from US missiles landed in the village of Jabo in Sokoto, as well as Offa, a village in the central western Kwara state, hundreds of miles from Sokoto. Idris downplayed the damage to the villages, saying there were no civilian casualties, but residents of Offa say several homes were destroyed by the US missile, and some injuries were reported.