In a landmark counterterrorism success announced jointly by the United States and Nigerian governments, a top-ranking Islamic State leader identified as Abu-Bilal al-Minuki — the group’s global second-in-command — has been killed in a precision joint operation in northeast Nigeria’s Lake Chad region. The strike, which also eliminated several of al-Minuki’s senior lieutenants, marks one of the most significant blows to the jihadist network’s leadership in recent years.
US President Donald Trump first broke the news of the operation in a post to his Truth Social platform, confirming he had personally authorized the mission. “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 in the announcement.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu later released an official statement confirming the outcome of the operation, noting that the strike targeted al-Minuki’s fortified compound in the Lake Chad Basin, a volatile, resource-scarce region that spans the borders of Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon. The Nigerian army detailed that the operation was a coordinated air-land assault carried out between midnight and 4 a.m. local time on Saturday, following weeks of intelligence gathering on al-Minuki’s hidden stronghold.
Nigerian military spokesman Sani Uba explained that intelligence confirmed al-Minuki and his loyal cell had established a concealed, heavily fortified enclave in a remote village within Borno State, the heart of a 17-year-long Islamist insurgency that has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions across northeast Nigeria. Both US and Nigerian officials frame al-Minuki’s death as a catastrophic disruption to IS global operations. The Nigerian defense statement called him a critical operational and strategic leader who not only directed IS activity in West Africa and the Sahel, but also provided guidance to IS affiliates across the globe on media strategy, economic warfare, and the production of weapons, explosives and drone technology.
“This operation dealt a heavy blow to the ranks of the Islamic State,” Tinubu said, emphasizing the coordinated effort between the two nations’ armed forces. “Our determined Nigerian Armed Forces, working closely with the Armed Forces of the United States, conducted a daring joint operation that removes a key coordinator of global terror networks.”
Al-Minuki, who was also known by the alias Abu-Mainok, had been subject to US sanctions since 2023 over his terror activities. A former senior commander in Boko Haram — the original jihadist group that launched its insurgency in northeast Nigeria in 2009 — al-Minuki was linked to some of the group’s most notorious atrocities. Nigerian military records tie him directly to the 2018 Dapchi kidnapping, in which more than 100 schoolgirls were abducted from their dormitory in Yobe State. Between 2015 and early 2016, he also facilitated the transfer of hundreds of Islamist fighters to Libya to reinforce IS operations in North Africa, according to official military accounts. In recent years, he oversaw coordinated IS-linked attacks targeting ethnic and religious minority communities across the Sahel and West Africa, officials confirmed.
Nigeria has faced growing pressure from the United States since late 2025, with Washington accusing the Tinubu administration of not moving aggressively enough to root out jihadist insurgent groups operating across the country’s northern regions, including Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), an IS-aligned offshoot. The joint operation follows a December 25 airstrike in northwestern Sokoto State, carried out by US forces alongside Nigerian partners, that targeted fighters from the Islamic State in the Sahel group, which is primarily based in neighboring Niger. In the weeks following that strike, Washington deployed hundreds of additional US troops to Nigeria to train and support local counterterrorism forces.
Tinubu opened his statement thanking Trump for his continued partnership, calling the US “an indispensable ally in our fight to eliminate terror from our soil.” He added that he looked forward to “more decisive strikes against all terrorist enclaves across the nation” in the coming months. The Nigerian army confirmed that no Nigerian or US military personnel were killed, and no coalition military assets were lost during the operation, a rare clean outcome for a high-risk counterterrorism mission in the region’s difficult terrain.