WASHINGTON — US and Nigerian forces have killed a senior Islamic State commander in a covert operation that marks a dramatic escalation of Washington’s counterterrorism role in West Africa, according to President Donald Trump.
In a late-night statement posted on social media, Trump said the joint mission targeted Abu Bakr al-Mainuki — also identified in some reports as Abu-Bilal al-Minuki — whom he described as the “second in command of ISIS” globally. The US president claimed the militant leader had been “hiding in Africa” before being tracked through intelligence sources.
The operation, reportedly carried out on Friday alongside Nigerian security forces, was described by Trump as a “meticulously planned and very complex mission”. Neither the Pentagon nor Nigerian authorities immediately released full operational details, including the exact location of the raid or whether air power was involved.
According to US officials cited by American media, al-Mainuki had emerged as a crucial figure in Islamic State’s global financing and operational network, with intelligence agencies alleging he was involved in plotting attacks against American interests abroad.
Born in Nigeria’s insurgency-ravaged Borno State in 1982, al-Mainuki reportedly rose through the ranks of Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), the splinter faction that broke away from Boko Haram and pledged allegiance to ISIS in 2015. Analysts from the Counter Extremism Project said he became a leading figure in the group after the death of former commander Mamman Nur in 2018 and later expanded his influence across the wider Sahel region.
US authorities formally sanctioned him in 2023 as part of broader efforts to disrupt ISIS-linked financing and recruitment networks operating across West Africa.
The killing comes amid growing American military involvement in Nigeria under Trump’s administration. In recent months, Washington has deployed military advisers, intelligence personnel and surveillance drones to assist Nigerian forces battling jihadist groups, bandits and separatist violence. Around 100 to 200 US troops were reportedly sent earlier this year in what officials described as a non-combat advisory mission.
Trump has repeatedly argued that Islamist violence in Nigeria poses a wider international threat, while also claiming that Christians in the country are being disproportionately targeted by extremist groups. Nigerian officials have disputed suggestions of a religious “genocide”, insisting the violence affects both Muslim and Christian communities.
Friday’s raid is the latest in a series of aggressive overseas operations announced by Trump during his second term. The White House has increasingly framed Africa as a new frontline in the global battle against ISIS following the collapse of the group’s territorial caliphate in Syria and Iraq nearly a decade ago. American intelligence agencies have warned that extremist organisations displaced from the Middle East are regrouping in unstable regions stretching from the Sahel to the Lake Chad Basin.
Despite Trump’s description of al-Mainuki as ISIS’s global deputy leader, some regional analysts and online commentators questioned whether the militant exercised authority beyond West Africa.
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