US Africa Command said the strikes were conducted "in coordination with Nigerian authorities" in Sokoto State, while a US official told the Reuters news agency the strikes killed multiple targets.
Announcing the military intervention on his social media platform Truth Social, Mr Trump said: "Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries!
"I have previously warned these Terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was. The Department of War executed numerous perfect strikes, as only the United States is capable of doing.
"Under my leadership, our Country will not allow Radical Islamic Terrorism to prosper."
On X, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said: "The President was clear last month: the killing of innocent Christians in Nigeria (and elsewhere) must end.
"The @DeptofWar [Department of War] is always ready, so ISIS found out tonight - on Christmas. More to come..."
He added he was grateful to the Nigerian government for its "support and cooperation".
Following the updates from US officials, Nigeria's foreign ministry confirmed that precision air strikes by the US had hit "terrorist targets" in the country's north west.
It said the country was cooperating with the US in "addressing the persistent threat of terrorism and violent extremism".
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Mr Trump said last month that he'd ordered the Pentagon to begin planning for potential military action in Nigeria following reports of Christian persecution.
His government also designated Nigeria a "country of particular concern" under the International Religious Freedom Act and said it would restrict visas for Nigerians and their family members involved in mass killings and violence against Christians in the West African country.
Nigeria's population is split between Muslims living primarily in the north and Christians in the south.
The Nigerian government previously said Mr Trump's claims that Christians face persecution there is a misrepresentation of the country's complex security challenges, and that armed groups also target Muslims - but it has agreed to work with the US to bolster its forces against terrorist activity.
After the US strikes, Nigeria's foreign ministry said: "Nigeria reiterates that all counter-terrorism efforts are guided by the primacy of protecting civilian lives, safeguarding national unity, and upholding the rights and dignity of all citizens, irrespective of faith or ethnicity. Terrorist violence in any form whether directed at Christians, Muslims, or other communities remains an affront to Nigeria's values and to international peace and security."
Last month, one of the country's biggest mass abduction saw more than 300 students taken from a catholic school in northern Nigeria. They were all freed by 22 December.
Princess Beatrice, and her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, and Princess Eugenie, and her partner Jack Brooksbank, joined the rest of the Royal Family on the short walk to the Mary Magdalene Church on the King's private Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, on Christmas morning.
They were pictured alongside King Charles, Queen Camilla and others, as hundreds braved the cold to catch a glimpse of the royals.
It came ahead of the King's Christmas message - which referenced the Bondi Beach and Manchester synagogue attacks and the "spontaneous bravery" of those who put "themselves in harm's way to defend others".
The monarch spoke about the need for kindness, compassion and hope "in times of uncertainty", "as we hear of division both at home and abroad".
He also appeared to encourage people to switch off from their gadgets for a while to "allow our souls to renew".
Some people queued overnight for the traditional church service, with the royals making their appearance shortly before 11am.
Attending the Christmas service at the St Mary Magdalene church is a regular tradition of the Royal Family and a highlight of their festive calendar.
After the service, the King, the Queen, the Prince and Princess of Wales and their children chatted to the crowds who lined the route back to Sandringham, many of them wearing Santa hats, tinsel necklaces or reindeer antlers.
Kate chatted to dozens of well-wishers for almost 20 minutes after most of the other royals had reached the house.
She was given armfuls of flowers, which were carried away by police officers.
Meanwhile, her children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, also received gifts from well-wishers, from soft toys to boxes of chocolates and games.
Among the royals attending church were the Princess Royal and her husband Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, Anne's daughter Zara Tindall and her husband Mike Tindall with their daughters, and the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh and their children.
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It comes as Andrew continues life on the outside of the Royal Family, with the US government continuing to release more of the Epstein files.
Andrew was forced to step back from royal life after his links to Epstein, a convicted paedophile who took his own life in 2019, became apparent.
The former duke will soon leave his Royal Lodge home near Windsor Castle, for a property on the Sandringham Estate. Marsh Farm is being renovated for the move in the New Year.
Watch: What could be next for Andrew in light of the Epstein files?
Andrew was forced to give up his Windsor home after an outcry when it emerged he had been paying a peppercorn rent for the large property.
Our Sky News correspondents have been on the ground all through 2025, bringing you the full story first.
Here's what they have seen - and why it's important to them.
Adam Parsons, Middle East correspondent, on his time in Gaza
I will always remember the first time I went into Gaza.
The Israeli military took a group of journalists to a place called Tel el-Hawa, a suburb of Gaza City, where the war was raging.
The army controlled where we went, what we saw, and when we arrived and left, but even allowing for those restrictions, it was still an extraordinary experience.
It was a long journey to get there, starting in Hummers and moving into armoured personnel carriers.
When we arrived, the door slid open and reality smacked you. The booms of explosions and the chatter of gunfire were nearby, echoing on the walls of bombed-out houses.
There were warnings to look out for snipers, and people's abandoned possessions were strewn on the ground.
But what will stick with me are two things - the utter devastation all around us, with a landscape of grey dust, rubble and shattered buildings, and secondly, the simple lack of life.
Not only were there no civilians, but also no animals, no flowers, no grass and not even a bird in the sky.
Stuart Ramsay, chief correspondent, on a year of free Syria
Reporting on the evolution of Syria from a country at war with Bashar al Assad as president, to a country rid of him and trying to rebuild itself, has provided me with some of the most memorable moments of my year of reporting.
My relationship with Syria goes back to 2011. During the Arab Spring, I was one of a handful of journalists who reported from inside rebel areas of Syria, meeting the thousands of ordinary people attempting to bring about political change in their country.
They finally did get their change, and I could not believe that I was standing in the middle of a square in Damascus as they celebrated.
Since then, the stories I have covered from Syria have been far from easy - outbreaks of horrendous sectarian violence on the country’s Mediterranean coast, investigations into the former regime’s bloody campaign of torture and murder against its own citizens and witnessing the pain of people trying to find their missing loved ones were a constant theme.
But there have been moments of happiness, even euphoria, as the Syrian people slowly began to realise that the 50 years of the Assad dynasty’s dictatorship were over, never to return.
I was wanted by the Assad regime - an arrest warrant was issued because of my reporting from opposition areas, but this year I could, for the first time, walk freely in Damascus, eat in restaurants, drive north along roads in normal traffic, free from the threat of Assad’s security forces that throttled this country.
That was liberating for me. Imagine how much more liberating it is for Syrians to be free?
There is not a clearly defined happy ending, of course, the country still faces many problems both internally, with a government trying to find its way, and externally, with the international community watching like hawks, making sure Syria will not once again fall back into violence.
But a friend in Syria sent me a text on the anniversary of the fall of Assad: “We are living our best days in Syria, and celebrate the anniversary of liberation,” he wrote.
“We will rebuild our country, come witness it.”
“I will,” I replied. And I plan to do that.
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Tom Parmenter, national correspondent, on the immigration debate
The UK’s battlelines over immigration deepened even further in 2025.
The sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl in Epping in July triggered furious and at times violent protests.
At first, it was outside the Bell Hotel in Epping where the man responsible was being housed - Ethiopian Hadush Kebatu had only arrived on a small boat days earlier.
Then we saw demonstrations at other asylum hotels. People mobilised - some organising counter-protests. Others put union flags up across the nation.
For some, it was an expression of national solidarity - for others, it exacerbated the idea they were living in a hostile environment.
Racist incidents spiked. People also felt unsafe not knowing who was living in their communities. Politicians who dismissed the protests as simply “far right” were not seeing the full story.
Fury felt over a chaotic immigration system, then turned to farce.
The sex offender who triggered the protests in Epping was released by mistake from prison.
We followed a fast-moving manhunt around London before he was caught and promptly deported to Ethiopia.
Remarkably, it wasn't a one-off - it turned out the underfunded prison service has been losing inmates at an alarming rate.
At one point in November, we were following two further manhunts - one inmate did the decent thing and handed himself back in.
The other, an Algerian sex offender, was on the run for two weeks. Sky News caught up with him shortly before the police arrested him.
“It’s not my f****** fault!” he yelled at me.
It was surreal, and yet another story 2025 where you come away asking: "What is going on in our country?"
Martha Kelner, US correspondent, on her viral encounter with Marjorie Taylor Greene
My most remarkable moment of the year was an encounter I had with Marjorie Taylor Greene, a house representative from Georgia.
I'm not sure I will ever forget standing in the Capitol building, inside the US government's corridors of power and being told by a sitting member of Congress to "go back to [my] own country".
I was berated by MTG, as she's known here, for asking very reasonable questions about Signalgate.
It was a scandal about leading members of the administration, including defence secretary Pete Hegseth and vice president JD Vance, using Signal, a less secure communication platform, to discuss military strikes on the Houthis in Yemen, a matter of international interest.
I knew Taylor Greene had a reputation for being feisty, but I didn't expect such a vicious outburst.
The exchange soon went viral, I think because it demonstrates how much things have changed in the second Trump term, where normal codes of conduct don't apply.
MTG and US President Donald Trump may have fallen out now, after the congresswoman went up against him on big issues, but she was just taking her cues from her old friend.
Because the president is also disdainful towards certain journalists, calling them "Piggy" and "stupid" and "nasty" when they ask questions he doesn't like.
Yousra Elbagir, Africa correspondent, on the war in Sudan
In September, we finally made it into North Darfur after two years of trying to cross over into Sudan's western region from Chad.
Two decades on from the genocide of the early 2000s, Darfur is being ravaged by armed violence at the hands of the same Janjaweed militias - now with more power and sophisticated weapons than ever before as the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
We met people with incredible bravery and commitment to helping the vulnerable, starved and displaced populations that were fleeing the regional capital, Al Fashir, as the RSF tightened their 18-month siege.
They all warned us that Al Fashir's fall to the RSF would be catastrophic - one man who fled the city and had the scars to prove it looked me dead in the eye and said "if Al Fashir falls, the whole of Sudan will fall".
Weeks later, we were reporting on the capture of Al Fashir by the RSF and the mass atrocities they were committing as people attempted to flee.
Civilians were shot dead in killing fields around the city in trophy videos shared by RSF fighters, and others were rounded up in a school in a nearby town, and they said they were forced to bury the captives who were executed by the RSF based on ethnicity.
This was the catastrophe we were warned about - the horror of massacres so bloody and brutal that corpses and red stains were seen from space.
As this all unfolded, our deployment to Darfur stayed at the forefront of my mind.
The voice of Dr Afaf, a volunteer from Al Fashir helping thousands of people through the Emergency Response Rooms, kept ringing out: "I direct my blame to the international community - where is the humanity?"
Devon and Cornwall Police have urged people to avoid coastal swimming after two men, aged in their 40s and 60s, went missing in the water off a beach in Devon on Christmas morning.
Police were called at 10.25am following concerns for people in the water, and an extensive search for the pair was called off in the evening.
"Today, emergency services have been responding to a truly tragic incident in Budleigh Salterton," said Detective Superintendent Hayley Costar from Devon and Cornwall Police on Thursday evening.
"There have been weather warnings in place this week and a number of official and unofficial swims have already been cancelled," she added.
"We urge anyone with plans to go swimming in the sea on Boxing Day not to."
It come as the UK Health Security Agency's (UKHSA) yellow alert for the south west of England, issued from 6pm on 25 December, will continue until midday on 27 December.
The alert warns of a "greater risk to life of vulnerable people", as well as an "increased use of healthcare services" among that group.
Boxing Day set to be milder than Christmas
While there were yellow weather warnings in place for strong winds on Christmas Day, the Met Office said Boxing Day would ultimately be milder, albeit frosty in the morning and continuing to be chilly.
"Boxing Day we're going to see some good spells of sunshine, we will see a little in the way of cloud for the South and North West, some light rain, but for the vast majority it's going to be dry," Met Office meteorologist Zoe Hutin said.
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"While it will still be breezy, it won't be as windy as Christmas Day.
"It's still going to feel chilly, top temperatures between 6-7C, in the south it's going to feel closer to 4-5C.
"A low chance of snow, it's not expected at all."
She said to expect similar conditions over the weekend, with temperatures at between 6-7C.
There could be drizzle where the cloud is thicker, and it will stay quite breezy, Ms Hutin added.
The Storm Shadow missiles caused multiple explosions at the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery in Rostov, according to the Ukrainian General Staff.
"Multiple explosions were recorded. The target was hit," the General Staff said on the Telegram app on Thursday.
The refinery was one of southern Russia's biggest suppliers of oil products and was supplying diesel and jet fuel to Russian troops fighting in Ukraine, according to the officials.
The UK gave Ukraine permission to use its Storm Shadow missiles inside Russia last year, with the first known strikes happening in November that year.
Ukrainian-made long-range drones hit oil product tanks in Russia's Temryuk port in the Krasnodar region and a gas processing plant in Orenburg.
The Orenburg plant is the largest facility of its kind and is around 1,400km (870 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
Russian officials in Krasnodar said two oil product tanks caught fire at the southern port of Temryuk after the drone attack.
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Flames covered about 2,000 square metres, authorities at the Krasnodar operational headquarters said on Telegram.
Both Kyiv and Moscow have stepped up their attacks on energy facilities in recent months.
Kyiv has increased its strikes on Russia's oil refineries and other energy infrastructure since August as it seeks to cut
Moscow's oil revenues, a key source of funding for its war effort.
The chart shows oil refineries struck by Ukraine in the months leading up to December.
Elsewhere in the conflict, Russian officials said there had been "slow but steady progress" in peace negotiations with the United States.
"In the negotiation process on a settlement of the Ukraine conflict, I mean in the negotiation process with the United States, there is slow but steady progress," said Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Thursday.
She added, however, that western European powers were trying to torpedo the progress of peace talks and the United States should counter such moves.
Ukraine's President Zelenskyy posted on Telegram to say he had spoken to the US's Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner "for nearly an hour".
"It was truly a good conversation: many details, good ideas, and we discussed them," he said. "We have some new ideas on how to bring real peace closer, and this concerns formats, meetings, and of course, timing."