U.S. and Nigerian forces carried out a joint operation that killed a senior Islamic State commander in Nigeria, U.S. and Nigerian military authorities said, in a move they called a strategic blow to the militant group.
Abu-Bilal al-Minuki was “second in command of ISIS globally,” President Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social. His targeting comes after the Trump administration launched strikes against the Islamic State in Nigeria in December, following a months-long pressure campaign in the U.S. on behalf of Nigerian Christians.
Trump said U.S. and Nigerian forces carried out the “meticulously planned” raid at his direction and thanked the Nigerian government for its partnership in what he described as a “complex mission.”
“With his removal, ISIS’s global operation is greatly diminished,” he said.
Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu confirmed the strike in a post on X on Saturday, describing it as a “daring joint operation that dealt a heavy blow to the ranks of the Islamic State.”
“Early assessments confirm the elimination of the wanted IS senior leader, Abu-Bilal Al-Manuki [Minuki] … along with several of his lieutenants, during a strike on his compound in the Lake Chad Basin,” he said.
“Nigeria appreciates this partnership with the United States in advancing our shared security objectives.”
Helicopters and warplanes were used in the operation, a U.S. official familiar with the strike said on Saturday. A ground assault force including U.S. troops coordinated with Nigerian officials, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the operation.
The official said the ground force was present in case there was an opportunity to capture Minuki. But as the operation unfolded, U.S. forces launched airstrikes and no capture occurred.
Video released by U.S. Africa Command, which oversees military operations in the region, showed at least one aircraft firing its guns at targets below, followed by an apparent strike by a missile or rocket.
Before December’s strikes, Trump had accused Nigeria’s government of allowing the killing of Christians and threatened to go in “guns-a-blazing,” a threat that sparked confusion and fear in the country.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth cited those warnings in a statement Saturday, saying that Trump had “declared to the world that we will help protect Christians in Nigeria” and instructed the Pentagon “to prepare for action.”
“So, for months, we hunted this top ISIS leader in Nigeria who was killing Christians, and we killed him — and his entire posse,” Hegseth said.
Minuki, a Nigerian national, was named as a “specially designated global terrorist” by the State Department in 2023 under the Biden administration for his leadership role in the Islamic State.
Based in the Sahel, Minuki rose to become the senior leader of the Islamic State’s al-Furqan office, described as one of the group’s best-established and most active networks by the Counter Extremism Project, a nonprofit that tracks militant groups.
U.S. Air Force Gen. Dagvin Anderson, commander of U.S. Africa Command, which carried out the operation in northeastern Nigeria, said initial assessments showed that “multiple other ISIS leaders” had been killed. No U.S. service members were harmed, he said in a statement Saturday.
Africom said Minuki had a “significant history” of planning attacks and taking hostages, as well as providing strategic guidance to the Islamic State’s global network.
Nigeria’s armed forces described him as a key figure who advised Islamic State groups on media operations and the manufacturing of weapons, explosives and drones. “His death removes a critical node through which ISIS coordinated and directed operations across different regions of the world,” it said in a statement Saturday.
He had overseen Islamic State-linked operations in the Sahel and West Africa, helped send fighters to Libya, and recently may have been elevated to second-in-command of the Islamic State globally, the Nigerian army said, citing intelligence reports.
Daniel Bwala, a spokesman for Tinubu, said the killing of Minuki showed the Nigerian president’s commitment to addressing insecurity in Nigeria and improvements made in the relationship with the U.S. since Trump first threatened in November to halt all aid and “wipe out” militants in the country.
“The U.S. and Nigeria worked together, from the beginning stage to the final stage,” he said. “Our relationship has improved dramatically.”
Bwala said that while Nigeria’s government still disputes the narrative that Christians are killed disproportionately, it knew that Trump would be a “strong leader and good partner.”
“From our point of view here, Minuki was killing both Muslims and Christians,” he said.
Nigeria’s population of more than 230 million is roughly split between Muslims and Christians. (Some polls show an almost even split; others put it at closer to 45 percent Christian, 55 percent Muslim.) Analysts say conflict in the country has broadly impacted Nigerians, regardless of their religion, with bouts of violence occurring across several regions.
Bwala said Minuki had been a vital player in connecting militants in Islamic State Sahel and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).
The Post has previously reported that Nigerian and U.S. officials believe Islamic State Sahel is sharing intelligence and coordinating logistics with the more established ISWAP, which is based hundreds of miles to the east on the islands of Lake Chad. Together, officials fear, the two groups could destabilize vast stretches of northern Nigeria, home to an estimated 130 million people, where authorities have long struggled to contain insurgent violence.
James Barnett, a Nigeria specialist at the Hudson Institute think tank, said the strikes mark “the most significant counterterrorism operation that the United States has been involved in in West Africa in recent years.” But he added that the long-term implications are not yet clear.
Minuki may have recently assumed a leadership role in ISIS’s General Directorate of Provinces, Barnett said, in line with Trump’s comment about his global role. But the claim is difficult for analysts to assess because of lack of clarity about ISWAP’s leadership, Barnett said. He added that while the strike may disrupt ISWAP’s operations, it is “unlikely that it significantly degrades the group.”
Trump had previously announced the death of a former Islamic State leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in October 2019, saying he died after detonating a suicide vest during a raid by U.S. Special Forces in northwest Syria.
Rael Ombuor contributed to this report.
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