Isaac Samuel
United States President Donald Trump on Friday announced that American and Nigerian forces had killed a senior commander of the Islamic State group during a coordinated military operation.
Trump disclosed this in a statement posted on Truth Social, where he described the mission as “meticulously planned” and “very complex.”
According to the US president, the operation targeted Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, whom he identified as the “second in command of ISIS globally.”
“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.
He added that the slain commander “will no longer terrorize the people of Africa, or help plan operations to target Americans.”
Trump said the successful operation had “greatly diminished” the global operations of the extremist group.
The US president, however, did not disclose where the operation was carried out, but the US Africa Command said the strikes were carried out “in coordination with Nigerian authorities” in Sokoto State.
Trump stated that the ISIS commander had been hiding somewhere in Africa before intelligence operatives tracked him.
According to documents from the US Office of Foreign Assets Control, al-Minuki was born in 1982 in Borno State, northeastern Nigeria.
As of the time of filing this report, the Nigerian government had yet to officially confirm the operation or comment on Trump’s claims.
The reported strike marks another military action targeting ISIS-linked militants operating in Nigeria and the wider West African region.
Nigeria has battled insurgency in the North-East for more than a decade, with terrorist groups linked to Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) carrying out deadly attacks on civilians and security forces.
Security experts have also noted that Nigeria’s security challenges extend beyond terrorism to include communal violence, farmer-herder clashes and other armed conflicts across different parts of the country.
