May 15 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, second in command of ISIS globally, was killed in an operation conducted by U.S. and Nigerian forces.
It was a strike that Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu described as “a significant example of effective collaboration in the fight against terrorism.”
“Tonight, at my direction, brave American forces and 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. Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, second in command of ISIS globally, thought he could hide in Africa, but little did he know we had sources who kept us informed on what he was doing,” Trump said on Truth Social, without disclosing the exact location of the operation.
In a statement posted on X, Tinubu said early assessments confirmed the elimination of al-Minuki — also known as Abu-Mainok — along with several of his lieutenants, during a strike on his compound in the Lake Chad Basin.
Tinubu said Nigerian forces worked closely with their U.S. counterparts in what he called a daring joint operation that dealt a heavy blow to the ranks of the Islamic State.
Al-Minuki, a Nigerian national, was designated a “specially designated global terrorist” by the Biden administration in 2023, according to the U.S. Federal Register.
Trump, who has previously accused Nigeria of failing to protect Christians from Islamist 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.
The U.S. carried out strikes 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 that are spreading across West Africa.
The U.S. forces were operating in a strictly non-combat role, Nigerian military officials said earlier this year.
(Reporting by Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Tom Hogue, Kirsten Donovan)
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