US President Donald Trump said yesterday, Friday, that Abu Bilal al-Minuki, the second in command of the Islamic State (ISIS) worldwide, was killed in an operation conducted by US and Nigerian forces.
“Tonight on my command, brave American forces and the Nigerian Armed Forces flawlessly executed a meticulously planned and very complex mission to take out of the battlefield the world’s most active terrorist. Abu Bilal al-Minooki, the second in command of ISIS worldwide, thought he could hide in Africa, but didn’t know we had sources that kept us informed of what he was doing,” the US President said in a post on his social media outlet Truth Social.
Donald Trump did not reveal in his post the exact location where the operation took place.
Al Minooki, a Nigerian national, was designated a “specially designated global terrorist” by former US President Joe Biden’s administration in 2023, according to the US Federal Register.
Donald Trump, who had earlier accused Nigeria of failing to protect Christians from Islamist militants in its northwest, thanked the Nigerian government for its cooperation in the operation.
Nigeria denies discriminating against any religion, saying its security forces are targeting armed groups that attack both Christians and Muslims.
The US had carried out strikes targeting militants linked to Islamic State in Nigeria in December. Since then, Washington has deployed unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) and 200 troops to provide training and intelligence support to the Nigerian military against Islamic State jihadists and al-Qaeda-linked insurgencies spreading across West Africa.
The U.S. forces are operating in a strictly non-combat role, Nigerian military officials had said earlier this year.
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