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The president Donald Trump announced this Friday the elimination of Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, whom he described as the second-in-command of ISIS globally, in a joint operation carried out by U.S. forces and the Nigerian Armed Forces.
Trump made the announcement on his Truth Social platform shortly after 11 PM on Friday, May 15, describing the mission as "meticulously planned and very complex."
"This night, under my direction, brave American forces and the Armed Forces of Nigeria flawlessly executed a meticulously planned and highly complex mission to eliminate the world's most active terrorist from the battlefield," wrote the leader.
Trump stated that al-Minuki "thought he could hide in Africa, but he didn't know we had sources keeping us informed about what he was doing."
"The people of Africa will no longer be terrorized nor will they assist in planning operations against Americans. With his elimination, ISIS's global operation is severely weakened," the president added, also expressing gratitude to the Government of Nigeria for its "partnership in this operation."
Al-Minuki was a Nigerian citizen and senior commander of the Islamic State in West Africa (ISWAP), as well as chief of operations for the Lake Chad division within the ISIS Provinces Directorate.
His full name in the sanctions records is Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn 'Ali al-Mainuki. He was designated as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the United States government in June 2023, during the Biden administration, which involved the freezing of his assets and prohibiting transactions with U.S. entities.
Trump did not specify the exact location within Nigeria where the operation took place. The Russian agency TASS noted that as of now, there is no information about civilian casualties.
The operation is part of a sustained counter-terrorism campaign that Washington has been conducting in Nigeria under the second Trump administration. In December 2025, the president ordered airstrikes in northwestern Nigeria on Christmas night, justified as a response to massacres of Christians attributed to ISIS.
On that occasion, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth confirmed the attacks, and Nigeria acknowledged that the operations were conducted "in collaboration with the United States." According to reports, that operation reportedly included Tomahawk missiles launched from a ship in the Gulf of Guinea, targeting locations in the Sokoto region.
IWSAP operates primarily in northeastern Nigeria—specifically in the states of Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa—and in the Lake Chad basin, with branches in Cameroon, Chad, and Niger. The group emerged from Boko Haram after pledging allegiance to the Islamic State in March 2015 and established itself as the dominant jihadist faction in West Africa following the death of Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau in May 2021.
The United States had approximately 200 soldiers deployed in Nigeria dedicated to training and intelligence, as well as drones in support of the Nigerian army, which facilitated the prolonged tracking of al-Minuki until his elimination.
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