ISIS leader killed in Nigeria during joint US operation, Trump says
United States and Nigerian forces killed a senior leader of the Islamic State linked to terror attacks against Christians and the mass kidnapping of schoolchildren during a joint operation in the Lake Chad Basin in northeastern Nigeria, President Donald Trump announced.
Trump wrote on Truth Social that the mission that eliminated the global terror organization's second in command, Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, was “meticulously planned and very complex." With his removal, Trump said the Islamic State (also known as IS or ISIS) global operation is "greatly diminished.”
"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 wrote. "He will no longer terrorize the people of Africa, or help plan operations to target Americans."
The president praised the Nigerian government for partnering in the operation.
The Nigerian president’s office confirmed the operation and said early assessments established al-Mainuki’s death. Several of his lieutenants were also killed.
"Abu-Bilal al-Minuki was a key ISIS operational and strategic figure who provided guidance to ISIS entities outside Nigeria on matters relating to media operations, economic warfare and the development and manufacturing of weapons, explosives and drones," Bayo Onanuga, special adviser to Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, said in a statement.
"His death removes a critical node through which ISIS coordinated and directed operations across different regions of the world."
In a separate statement, Onanuga criticized critics questioning the authenticity of reports of the IS leader's death.
"Undermining credible joint operations, particularly those involving Nigerian forces and international partners, risks weakening public confidence in ongoing counterterrorism efforts," Onanuga said. "They note that Nigeria’s armed forces, working alongside foreign intelligence partners, continue to operate in one of the most complex insurgency environments in the world, where targets often move across borders, adopt multiple identities, and operate within civilian-populated terrain."
A U.S. official told The Wall Street Journal that the operation included both a ground assault and airstrikes. The Pentagon released a video of what appeared to be a strike on an IS position.
Al-Mainuki, born in Nigeria in 1982, guided IS media operations, economic warfare and the development and manufacturing of weapons, explosives and drones, Maj. Gen. Samaila Uba, spokesman for Nigeria’s armed forces, said in a statement.
Al-Mainuki was also reportedly involved in IS fundraising operations.
In 2023, the U.S. State Department designated al-Mainuki as a leader of Islamic State in Africa’s Sahel region. The Treasury Department added him to its specially designated global terrorist list the same year, imposing sanctions.
His extremist roots trace to the Boko Haram terror group, which has abducted children, and he was linked to the 2018 kidnapping of more than 100 schoolgirls in Nigeria’s Yobe State, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Defense officials believe Somali national Abdul Qadir Mumin now leads the Islamic State globally.
The United Nations reported last year that the group had between 8,000 and 12,000 fighters in West Africa, a region also contested by the local al-Qaeda affiliate Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin.
The operation followed a significant warming in U.S.-Nigeria relations after a period of public friction.
In November 2025, Trump said he was “really angry” about attacks on Christian communities in Nigeria and alleged the government had “done nothing” to stop them. He threatened at the time to send American troops in “guns-a-blazing” to kill Islamist extremists.
In the rapprochement that followed, the U.S. dispatched hundreds of troops to train Nigerian forces in coordinated air-and-infantry tactics. The U.S. said American troops would provide intelligence on militant targets but would not participate in ground combat.
Trump ordered an earlier round of strikes on Islamic State camps in Nigeria on Christmas Day last year. The U.S. military’s Africa Command said multiple IS fighters were killed in those strikes.
Islamic State established a short-lived caliphate in Syria and Iraq during the 2010s before a coalition that included the U.S., regional allies and Iran retook most of that territory beginning in 2017. The group and its affiliates have since maintained a presence in parts of the Middle East and Africa. Its West Africa branches are active in Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.
