Donald Trump has announced that American and Nigerian forces have killed the second-in-command of Islamic State globally, in what the US president described as a meticulously planned joint operation carried out on African soil.
In a post on his Truth Social platform on Friday, Trump said the mission had been conducted “at my direction” and had “flawlessly executed” the killing of Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, a senior IS figure who had been placed under US sanctions in 2023 for his ties to the organisation.
“Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, second in command of ISIS globally, thought he could hide in Africa,” Trump wrote, “but little did he know we had sources who kept us informed on what he was doing.”
The president offered no details about where on the continent the operation took place, what forces were involved on the ground, or whether there were any casualties on either side. He did not say how al-Minuki was killed.
Trump framed the strike in sweeping terms, claiming it would deal a significant blow to the group’s capacity to project violence beyond its immediate theatres of operation. “He will no longer terrorize the people of Africa, or help plan operations to target Americans,” he wrote. “With his removal, ISIS’s global operation is greatly diminished.”
He closed by thanking the Nigerian government for its “partnership” on the mission — an acknowledgment that marks a notable moment of public military cooperation between Washington and Abuja, at a time when the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin have become an increasingly active front in the global contest with jihadist networks affiliated with both Islamic State and al-Qaida.
Neither the Nigerian military nor government had issued an independent statement confirming the operation at the time of publication. The claims have not yet been independently verified.
