Florida Representative Cory Mills offered a public salute to President Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on May 16, 2026, after U.S. and Nigerian forces eliminated Abu-Bilal al-Minuki — the second-in-command of ISIS globally — in a precision overnight strike in northeastern Nigeria that the Pentagon described as a significant blow to the terrorist organization’s worldwide command structure.
Mills, a member of the House Armed Services Committee and Army veteran, posted his reaction to X shortly after the operation became public, offering unambiguous praise for the administration’s handling of the strike. “I applaud President Trump and SecWar Hegseth for their decisive action alongside Nigeria to eliminate Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, ISIS’s global second-in-command and one of the world’s most dangerous terrorists,” Mills wrote in the post. “There can be no safe haven for those who target American lives, murder Christians, and spread terror across the globe. This is peace through strength and leadership that’s willing to act. God bless our brave warriors outstanding job.”
The operation Mills praised was announced by Trump late Friday in a post on Truth Social. Trump described the mission as one carried out “at his direction,” writing that “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 added that al-Minuki had believed he could evade detection by hiding in Africa, but that U.S. intelligence sources had tracked his movements throughout.
U.S. Africa Command confirmed Saturday that “multiple terrorists, to include Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, the director of global operations for ISIS, as well as other senior ISIS leaders, were killed during this operation” and that no U.S. service members were harmed. AFRICOM commander U.S. Air Force Gen. Dagvin Anderson said the operation “underscores the exceptional value of the U.S.-Nigeria partnership” and was made possible through months of close coordination between the two militaries. Fox News
Hegseth, posting on X Saturday morning, offered additional detail on al-Minuki’s portfolio within ISIS — describing him as “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,” and stating that his removal “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.”
Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu confirmed that al-Minuki, also known as Abu-Mainok, was killed along with several of his lieutenants during a strike on his compound in the Lake Chad Basin, calling the joint effort a “significant example of effective collaboration in the fight against terrorism.” The Nigerian army said the precision air-land operation was conducted in Metele, in Borno state, between midnight and 4 a.m. local time.
Al-Minuki’s history within jihadist networks stretches back more than a decade. Before pledging allegiance to ISIS in 2015, he was a prominent Boko Haram leader. A Nigerian army statement described him as a “key” operational and strategic figure who guided ISIS entities outside Nigeria on media operations, economic warfare, and weapons manufacturing, and who oversaw ISIS-linked attacks against “ethnic and religious minority communities” across the Sahel and West Africa.
Al-Minuki, a Nigerian national, was designated a “specially designated global terrorist” by the U.S. government in 2023. The State Department’s designation identified him as a senior member of the ISIS General Directorate of Provinces — the body responsible for providing financial and operational direction to ISIS affiliates across multiple regions. That designation, under the Biden administration, imposed sanctions on any U.S.-linked property associated with him and restricted financial transactions involving his network.
Mills’ praise for the Trump administration’s handling of the operation aligns with a counterterrorism posture he has championed throughout his congressional tenure. He has consistently advocated for targeted military and intelligence operations against ISIS leadership, supported legislation designed to cut off terrorist financing, and warned against military withdrawals he argues create vacuums that groups like ISIS exploit to rebuild. His reference to “peace through strength” in the post mirrors language Trump and Hegseth have used to describe the administration’s broader national security philosophy.
Some analysts struck a more cautious note on the operation’s long-term significance. Cheta Nwanze of Lagos-based advisory group SBM Intelligence noted that al-Minuki had previously been declared killed in 2024 after an operation in Kaduna state — an announcement that did not produce a lasting degradation of ISWAP’s capabilities — and cautioned that eliminating a single commander may have limited impact as long as the financial networks sustaining the group remain functional.
The broader strategic backdrop for the strike includes a sustained U.S. military presence in the region. The U.S. had previously launched strikes against ISIS-linked militants in Nigeria in December 2025 and deployed around 200 troops along with MQ-9 drones earlier in 2026 to support Nigerian forces in a non-combat advisory role. The al-Minuki operation represented an escalation of that partnership into direct action — and, for Mills, a validation of the approach he has long argued for on Capitol Hill.
Mills served in the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division from 1999 to 2003, including a deployment to Iraq, before his election to Congress representing Florida’s 7th district. His Saturday post on X was among the first congressional reactions to the Trump announcement, and his framing — crediting both the president and the secretary of war by name — reflected a consistent public posture of supporting aggressive, executive-led counterterrorism action wherever ISIS and affiliated groups operate.