President Donald Trump announced late Friday night that U.S. and Nigerian forces carried out a joint operation killing Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, the man he described as the second-in-command of ISIS globally, revealing that American intelligence had been tracking the terrorist leader for months without his knowledge. Trump made the announcement in a post on Truth Social on May 15, 2026.
“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,” Trump wrote. “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. He will no longer terrorize the people of Africa, or help plan operations to target Americans. With his removal, ISIS’s global operation is greatly diminished.”
Trump closed the post with a note of gratitude toward Nigeria’s government: “Thank you to the Government of Nigeria for your partnership on this operation. GOD BLESS AMERICA!”
Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu confirmed the strike on Saturday, describing it as a “significant example of effective collaboration in the fight against terrorism.” 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.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth provided additional details in a post on X Saturday morning, confirming that U.S. forces, in coordination with the Armed Forces of Nigeria, killed al-Minuki and other ISIS leaders. Hegseth described al-Minuki’s specific role within the organization, writing that he “was the senior ISIS General Directorate of Provinces Emir — the number two for ISIS globally — responsible for overseeing the planning of attacks, directing hostage-taking and managing financial operations.” Hegseth added that “the removal of him and other ISIS personnel makes Americans safer by further degrading ISIS’s ability to plan and carry out attacks that threaten the U.S. homeland, American citizens, and innocent civilians.”
Hegseth also reiterated that Trump in November had “declared to the world that we will help protect Christians in Nigeria and instructed the Department of War to prepare for action,” writing, “So, for months, we hunted this top ISIS leader in Nigeria who was killing Christians, and we killed him — and his entire posse.”
The Nigerian Army said the strike was carried out in Metele in Borno State, where troops carried out a precision air-land operation in close coordination with U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM). The operation commenced at approximately 12:01 a.m. and concluded around 4 a.m. on Saturday and was executed with no casualties or loss of assets.
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. The June 2023 designation by the State Department identified him as a senior ISIS official based in the Sahel and a member of the organization’s General Directorate of Provinces, the administrative body that provides financial and operational direction to ISIS affiliates globally.
The operation unfolded in one of the most volatile corners of the African continent. Borno State has endured an insurgency waged by Boko Haram and its splinter group Islamic State West Africa Province for 17 years, which has killed thousands and displaced 2 million people. ISIS’s West Africa branch — one of the organization’s largest and most lethal — controls broad swaths of territory and has killed or displaced thousands in Nigeria and neighboring countries, operating primarily in northeastern Nigeria and throughout the Lake Chad region on the borders of Cameroon, Chad, and Niger.
The Islamic State has been increasingly pivoting its operations toward Africa, where it maintains the capacity to coordinate violence across a broad area, generate financial resources, and expand its recruitment base. Over two-thirds of Islamic State global activity in the first half of 2025 was recorded on the African continent. ISWAP has been increasingly focused on attacking Nigerian military bases in the northeastern states of Borno and Yobe, using IEDs and ground operations against military forces.
Friday’s strike was not the first recent U.S. military action targeting ISIS in Nigeria. 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.
Trump’s announcement underscored the administration’s willingness to publicize the intelligence methods that made the operation possible — most notably, that American sources had been closely monitoring al-Minuki’s movements without his knowledge. The president’s framing of the mission emphasized both the precision of the operation and the reach of U.S. surveillance capabilities in a region where ISIS has been aggressively expanding. Trump credited the partnership with Nigeria’s military as essential to the mission’s success, a notable statement given that he had previously accused Nigeria of failing to protect Christians from Islamist militants.
The elimination of al-Minuki represents one of the highest-profile counterterrorism strikes of the Trump administration’s second term, removing the man U.S. officials described as the individual most responsible for overseeing attack planning and financial operations across ISIS’s global network of affiliates.