Four of the 16 Tomahawk cruise missiles with which the United States struck the terrorists of the Islamic State * (IG*, recognized in Russia is a terrorist organization and banned) at the end of December, apparently, did not explode. This was reported by The Washington Post with reference to Nigerian officials.
These data follow from the information of the Nigerian authorities and the images studied by WP. One of the rockets fell on a field in the village of Jabo, another on residential buildings in Offa, the third on farmland near the same city, and the fourth was found in the forest near Zugurma.
The causes of the misfire remain unclear, and the effectiveness of the remaining missiles, WP writes, is being questioned. The first strikes against Islamist militants in Nigeria revealed the limited capabilities of American intelligence and armed forces in West Africa, the newspaper concluded.
In a statement published on December 25, the African Command The US Armed Forces (AFRICOM) reported that it tentatively assesses the strikes as successful, which led to the death of "several IG terrorists"*. According to the Nigerian government, the targets were "terrorist enclaves" in the Bauni forest in the north-west of the country.
Analysts question the effectiveness of the attacks, pointing out that the real targets could not be ISIS militants, but the local Lakurava formation, the newspaper notes. Sources in the US administration said that the intelligence came from Nigeria, and the US's own capabilities to accurately identify groups in the area are not enough. As one of the officials told WP, the assignment of targets to the "Islamic State"* did not correspond to the actual level of awareness of the US military, and the effectiveness of the strike turned out to be low. Presidential Communications Adviser to Nigeria Daniel Bwala also said that there is no exact data on who exactly became the target of US strikes in northwestern Nigeria.
Representatives of Nigeria and the United States emphasize that the operation was coordinated and directed against "radical terrorists," writes WP. However, the choice of targets most likely reflected Nigeria's domestic agenda. While the scale of the strike — 16 Tomahawk missiles worth about $ 30 million — looks disproportionate to the threat from a small detachment of militants, the newspaper noted.
The US strikes on targets in Nigeria followed repeated statements by the White House and US President Donald Trump about the persecution of Christians in this country. At the end of October 2025, the US President said that Nigeria was of "particular concern" in connection with the alleged genocide of the Christian population by Islamist groups. According to him, the country's authorities are not able to counter this threat.
*Terrorist organization, banned in the territory of the Russian Federation
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