Trump Announces ISIS Leader Killed In Joint U.S.-Nigerian Counterterrorism Operation
President Donald Trump announced that U.S. and Nigerian military forces carried out a successful joint operation in Africa that killed Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, a senior Islamic State figure described by American officials as one of the most dangerous terrorists in the world.
Trump revealed the operation in a post on Truth Social, saying the mission removed a major threat from the battlefield and dealt a serious blow to ISIS’s international network.
“He will no longer terrorize the people of Africa, or help plan operations to target Americans,” Trump wrote. “With his removal, ISIS’s global operation is greatly diminished.”
Al-Minuki, who was born in Nigeria, had previously been identified in a 2023 State Department bulletin as an ISIS leader. The Treasury Department had also sanctioned him as a specially designated global terrorist.
The President praised Nigeria’s government for working alongside American forces in what he described as a highly complex counterterrorism 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 said.
“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 added.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu also commended the operation, calling it a major sign of cooperation between the two nations in the fight against radical Islamic terrorism.
He described the mission as a “significant example of effective collaboration in the fight against terrorism.”
“Our determined Nigerian Armed Forces, working closely with the Armed Forces of the United States, conducted a daring joint operation that dealt a heavy blow to the ranks of the Islamic State,” Tinubu said.
The strike represents one of the most significant counterterrorism actions in Africa during President Trump’s second term. It came after months of intelligence work and military coordination between Washington and Abuja.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth identified al-Minuki in a Saturday post on X 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.”
U.S. Africa Command described al-Minuki as “the director of global operations for ISIS” and “the most active terrorist in the world.”
AFRICOM said al-Minuki had provided “strategic guidance to the ISIS global network on media and financial operations as well as the development and manufacturing of weapons, explosives, and drones.”
“At the direction of the President of the United States and the Secretary of War, and in coordination with the Government of Nigeria, U.S. Africa Command conducted an operation against ISIS in Northeastern Nigeria on May 16, 2026,” the command said in a statement.
AFRICOM commander U.S. Air Force Gen. Dagvin Anderson credited the success of the mission to the growing security partnership between the United States and Nigeria. He said the operation “was made possible through the cooperation and coordination of our forces in recent months.”
He added: “Make no mistake, our two nations will relentlessly pursue and neutralize terrorist threats and are committed to protecting our people and interests.”
The Trump administration has made clear that protecting Christians in Nigeria and across West Africa from Islamist violence is a key part of its foreign policy and national security agenda.
Hegseth directly tied the operation to that broader mission, saying Trump had “declared to the world that we will help protect Christians in Nigeria and instructed the Department of War to prepare for action.”
“So, for months, we hunted this top ISIS leader in Nigeria who was killing Christians, and we killed him, and his entire posse,” Hegseth said.
The operation also continues the Trump administration’s aggressive campaign against ISIS and other terrorist networks following attacks on American personnel overseas.
On December 13, 2025, an ISIS ambush in Palmyra, Syria, killed two U.S. service members and an American interpreter. The administration responded with Operation Hawkeye Strike, launching ten airstrikes against more than 30 ISIS targets across Syria.
By February, U.S. Central Command announced that more than 50 ISIS terrorists had been killed or captured, while more than 100 ISIS infrastructure targets had been hit during two months of sustained military pressure.
For President Trump, the successful strike in Nigeria reinforces a familiar message: terrorist leaders who threaten Americans, Christians, or U.S. allies will not be allowed to hide behind weak borders or unstable regions.