US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, ISIS's second-in-command globally, was killed in an operation carried out by US and Nigerian forces.
"Tonight, under my direction, the courageous American forces and the Nigerian Armed Forces successfully executed a carefully planned and highly complex mission to eliminate the world's most active terrorist from the battlefield.
"Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, ISIS's second-in-command globally, thought he could hide in Africa, but he didn't know that we had sources keeping us informed about what he was doing," Trump said on Truth Social.
Trump did not reveal the exact location of the operation in his post.
Al-Minuki, a Nigerian national, was designated a “specially designated global terrorist” by the former Biden administration in 2023, according to the US Federal Register.
Trump, who has previously accused Nigeria of failing to protect Christians from Islamic militants in the northwest, thanked the Nigerian government for its partnership in the operation.
Nigeria denies discriminating against any religion, saying its security forces target armed groups that attack both Christians and Muslims. Reuters.
The US previously carried out airstrikes targeting Islamic State-linked militants in Nigeria in December. Since then, Washington has deployed drones and 200 troops to provide training and intelligence support to the Nigerian military against Islamic State and al-Qaeda-linked insurgencies spreading across West Africa.
