US and Nigerian forces carry out a joint operation against the commander, who was deemed a \u2018global terrorist\u2019 in 2023.<\/p>\n
Published On 16 May 202616 May 2026<\/p>\n
Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, alleged to be the second-in-command of ISIL (ISIS) globally, has been killed in an operation conducted by United States and Nigerian forces, the US and Nigerian presidents said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrave American forces \u2060and the Armed Forces of Nigeria flawlessly executed a meticulously planned and very complex mission to eliminate the most active terrorist in the world from the battlefield,\u201d US President\u00a0 Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Friday.<\/p>\n
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Al-Minuki \u201cthought he could hide in Africa, but little did he know we had \u200csources \u2060who kept us informed on what he was doing,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
Trump also thanked the Nigerian government for its partnership, but did not provide further details.<\/p>\n
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu confirmed the operation in a separate statement Saturday, saying that the two countries had \u201crecorded a significant example of effective collaboration in the fight against terrorism\u201d.<\/p>\n
Early assessments indicate that al-Minuki, along with \u201cseveral of his lieutenants\u201d, were killed during a strike on his compound in the Lake Chad Basin, Tinubu said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNigeria appreciates this partnership with the United States in advancing our shared security objectives,\u201d the Nigerian president added. \u201cI extend my sincere gratitude to President Trump for his leadership and unwavering support in this effort.\u201d<\/p>\n
Al-Minuki had been under US sanctions since 2023 for his links to ISIL.<\/p>\n
When announcing al-Minuki\u2019s designation on the list of \u201cglobal terrorists\u201d, the US State Department described him as a Sahel-based ISIL senior leader and part of its General Directorate of Provinces, the group\u2019s administrative body that provides \u201coperational guidance and funding around the world\u201d.<\/p>\n
Trump claimed ISIL\u2019s global operation was \u201cgreatly diminished\u201d after his killing.<\/p>\n
Previous strike<\/p>\n
For months, Trump has accused Nigeria<\/a> of not doing enough to stop armed groups from targeting Christians in the country\u2019s northwest.<\/p>\n Nigeria has denied the charge<\/a> and said that fighters target both Muslim and Christian communities in the country.<\/p>\n On Christmas Day last year, US forces carried out an air strike<\/a> in Sokoto State that targeted ISIL fighters operating in the region.<\/p>\n The US has since deployed<\/a> hundreds of troops to Nigeria to provide<\/a> technical support and intelligence sharing in the fight against armed groups.<\/p>\n The US forces are playing a strictly noncombat role, Nigeria has said.<\/p>\n In his statement Saturday, Tinubu expressed enthusiasm about possible future operations.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u00a0look forward to more decisive strikes against all terrorist enclaves across the nation,\u201d the president said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US and Nigerian forces carry out a joint operation against the commander, who was deemed a \u2018global terrorist\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":963850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[2740,32,32302,37885,2597,12,3007,49,978,286,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-963849","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-africa","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-drone-strikes","11":"tag-isil-isis","12":"tag-military","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-nigeria","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-us-canada","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=963849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/963850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=963849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=963849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=963849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}