Trump Releases Counterterrorism Strategy Equating Anti-Fascists With Islamic State And Al-Qaeda

The Trump administration released an official counterterrorism strategy on Wednesday that puts “anti-fascist” organizations on par with terrorist organizations such as Islamic State and al-Qaeda, and it frames U.S. threats as “Legacy Islamiast Terrorists,” “Narcoterrorists,” and “Violent Left-Wing Extremists, including Anarchists and Anti-Fascists.”

“The United States launched a series of airstrikes in Syria targeting positions of the Islamic State group, in response to an attack that occurred a week earlier that killed two American service members and an interpreter”

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The strategy says the administration will “prioritize the rapid identification and neutralization of violent secular political groups whose ideology is anti-American, radically pro-transgender, and anarchist,” and it adds that “We will use all the tools constitutionally available to us to map them at home.”

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In a separate development, Joseph Kent, the director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, tendered his resignation to Donald Trump, saying, “I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran.”

Kent wrote that “in June 2025,” Trump understood “that the wars in the Middle East were a trap,” and he argued that the conflict was triggered “under pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”

Donald Trump announced “very heavy reprisals” in Syria against the Islamic State group after an attack that cost the lives of two American service members and an interpreter, and the Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said the operation aimed to “eliminate Islamic State fighters, infrastructure and weapons sites.”

CENTCOM said the U.S. military struck “more than 70 targets at multiple locations in central Syria with fighter jets, helicopters and artillery,” and it said the operation began at 4:00 p.m. Washington time with “more than 100 precision munitions.”

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The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said at least five members of the Islamic State were killed in the strikes, including “the head of a cell” in charge of drones in the area, according to AFP’s account of Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the NGO.

In a reaction posted on X, the Syrian Foreign Ministry reaffirmed “its strong commitment to fighting ISIS and ensuring that it does not gain any refuge on Syrian soil,” without explicitly mentioning the American strikes.

Trump also formalized U.S. strikes in Nigeria targeting Islamic State militants in the country’s northwest, after he ordered the Defense Department to prepare to intervene militarily to protect Christians from Islamic militants, according to The New York Times as cited by Courrier international.

““Merry Christmas to everyone, including dead terrorists who will be even more numerous if their massacres of Christians continue,” Donald Trump said on Thursday on his Truth Social network”

Courrier international

In his post on Truth Social, Trump wrote, “I had previously warned these terrorists that if they did not stop their massacres of Christians, they would pay dearly, and tonight they have paid,” and Peter Hegseth confirmed on Twitter that “The president was clear last month: the murder of innocent Christians in Nigeria (and elsewhere) must stop.”

Courrier international reported that the operation was approved by the Nigerian government, which “worked with the United States to carry it out,” and it cited Kelvin Aneke, in charge of the Nigerian Air Force, urging his men to “leave nothing to be neglected in the fight against terrorism, banditry and other forms of crime in the Northwest region.”

The Intercept framed the broader counterterrorism push as escalating violence, quoting Sebastian Gorka recalling Trump’s response in the Oval Office: “Kill him!” and it described the administration’s claims of killing as part of a strategy it said was failing “no matter how Gorka spins it.”