Report: US military draws up strike plans on Nigeria after Trump threat

The United States military has drawn up air and ground strike plans on Nigeria according to defence officials.

Trump recently redesignated Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” in response to allegations of a Christian genocide in the country.

He has also warned that the US would enter Nigeria “guns-a-blazing” to protect the Christian population.

The US leader had ordered the Pentagon to prepare to intervene militarily in Nigeria to protect Christians from attack by Islamic militants.

According to the New York Times, military officials said US forces are unlikely to end insurgency in Nigeria unless they resort to an Iraq or Afghanistan-style campaign

Current and former military officials reportedly said any major operation by the United States in Nigeria would likely fail.

“It would be a fiasco,” said Paul Eaton, a retired army veteran of the war in Iraq.

Eaton likened any potential effort by Trump to direct the military to target Nigerian insurgents through air strikes to “pounding a pillow”.

According to the report, military officials said there were several measures available to American military strategists that could have a limited effect on the militants.

They said the Air Force could carry out strikes on the few identified compounds in northern Nigeria that are occupied by militant groups, with American drones such as the MQ-9 Reaper and MQ-1 Predator targeting a few vehicles and even some convoys.

Additionally, American forces could collaborate with Nigerian troops to raid villages in order to eliminate insurgents who have taken shelter in rural areas of the country’s northern region.

These options were reportedly part of the plans that officials from the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) developed this week to present to the joint staff at the Pentagon.

AFRICOM staffers revisited their strategies for the Sahel and forwarded same to Washington.

According to three defence officials, the plans developed by the command presented three levels of options: light, medium, and heavy — all designed to be escalatory.

The light option, as described by the officials, involved what the military termed partner-enabled operations.

In this scenario, the US military and the state department would assist Nigerian governmental forces in targeting Boko Haram and other Islamic militants responsible for attacks, kidnappings, and murder of civilians, predominantly in northern Nigeria, where sectarian and ethnic conflicts have persisted for nearly two decades.

The medium option involves drone strikes on militant camps, bases, convoys, and vehicles situated in northern Nigeria.

The heavy option would entail deploying an aircraft carrier group into the Gulf of Guinea and sending in fighter jets and possibly long-range bombers to carry out strikes deep within northern Nigeria.