Trump Announces Overnight Operation Killing Top ISIS Leader

President Donald Trump said American and Nigerian forces killed one of the Islamic State’s top commanders in an overnight operation.

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Trump named the target as Abu-Bilal al-Minuki and described him as the Islamic State’s second in command globally in a post on Truth Social. “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.

The president said al-Minuki believed Africa would shield him, but that U.S. sources had tracked his activity. Trump thanked Nigeria for its cooperation. “With his removal, ISIS’s global operation is greatly diminished,” Trump wrote. Trump’s post did not include the operation’s location or the method used, and additional specifics had not surfaced. (RELATED: Allegedly Botched Counterterrorism Operation Leaves Over 100 Dead After Refusing US Aid)

A Nigerian native, al-Minuki drew a State Department terrorist designation in 2023, according to CBS News. The department called him an Islamic State figure in Africa’s Sahel region and a senior official in one of the group’s General Directorate of Provinces offices, which the department said help direct funding and operations worldwide.

The Islamic State has lost much of its strength since 2017, when the United States and other forces drove it from territory it held in Iraq and Syria, CBS News reported. Branches of the group remain active in Nigeria and the Sahel.

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Trump pressed Nigeria last fall to act against terrorism and accused it of failing to stop violence against Christians, according to CBS News. Nigerian officials have rejected the claim that the country tolerates religious persecution, and analysts cited by the outlet said insurgent violence in the north has harmed large numbers of both Muslims and Christians.

Trump ordered strikes on Islamic State targets in the country on Christmas Day last year.

U.S. operations against the Islamic State extend beyond Nigeria. U.S. Central Command said in February that it had struck more than 30 of the group’s targets in Syria, part of a response to a December ambush that killed two American service members and an interpreter, according to Fox News.

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