{"id":45943,"date":"2025-12-26T13:56:54","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T13:56:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=45943"},"modified":"2025-12-26T13:56:54","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T13:56:54","slug":"shook-the-whole-town-nigerians-surprised-by-us-strikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2025\/12\/26\/shook-the-whole-town-nigerians-surprised-by-us-strikes\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Shook the whole town&#8217;: Nigerians surprised by US strikes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p><h2>Residents found burning debris near their homes following a US strike that they never expected to reach their area.<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Nigerians across Sokoto state awoke to loud blasts Thursday night, worried their village was being attacked by one of the multiple armed groups that plague northwest Nigeria.<\/p>\n<p>They were in fact strikes by the United States, in a Christmas Day bombardment targeting militants in several places.<\/p>\n<p>AFP reached three villagers by phone in the Sokoto countryside.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-surprise-strikes-rattle-rural-communities\">Surprise strikes rattle rural communities<\/h2>\n<p>The attack was a surprise to some around Jabo town, who said that their area was sometimes a target of armed \u201cbandit\u201d gangs and jihadists, but was not a stronghold for the groups.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe heard a loud explosion which shook the whole town and everyone was scared,\u201d said Haruna Kallah from Jabo, some 100 kilometres south of Sokoto city near the Niger border.<\/p>\n<p>Nigeria and the US have been locked in a dispute over what President Donald Trump has characterised as the mass killing of Christians in the country\u2019s armed conflicts.<\/p>\n<p>The Nigerian government and independent analysts reject Washington\u2019s framing, noting the west African country faces interlinked security crises that kill both Christian and Muslim civilians.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe initially thought it was an attack by Lakurawa,\u201d the main jihadist group in Sokoto State, Kallah said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ALSO READ: US launches Christmas Day strikes on targets in Nigeria<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-villagers-discover-debris-after-bombardment\">Villagers discover debris after bombardment<\/h3>\n<p>Learning that it was a US attack \u201csurprised us because this area has never been a Lakurawa enclave and we have never had any attacks in the last two years\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He said some locals mustered the courage to explore a field outside Barkini village on the outskirts of the town, where they discovered burning fragments from the bombardment.<\/p>\n<p>The US said it had struck militants linked to Islamic State without detailing which of Nigeria\u2019s multiple and well-documented groups were targeted.<\/p>\n<p>Ayuba Abdulkarim, another Jabo resident, said: \u201cThere was a huge explosion and everyone was terrified and thought the town was under attack from Lakurawa.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLuckily no one was hurt, but fragments from the bomb caused damage to walls and roofs of nearby homes.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-known-militant-camps-reportedly-targeted\">Known militant camps reportedly targeted<\/h3>\n<p>Tukur Shehu, resident of Tangaza, a neighbouring district, said two strikes targeted Warriya and Alkassim villages \u2014 known to house Lakurawa camps, from where they launch attacks and keep hostages.<\/p>\n<p>US special forces sneaked into Tangaza district in October 2020 and rescued Philip Walton, a US citizen kidnapped from his home in southern Niger.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NOW READ: Parents of abducted Nigeria students plead for rescue<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#Shook #town #Nigerians #surprised #strikes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Residents found burning debris near their homes following a US strike that they never expected to reach their area. Nigerians&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45944,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45943"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45943\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45945,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45943\/revisions\/45945"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}