Trump claims top ISIS commander killed (VIDEO)

US President Donald Trump has announced that Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, second in command of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) worldwide, has been killed in Nigeria on his orders.

The operation comes as Washington seeks to reassert its influence in Africa’s volatile Sahel region where a string of military coups and growing anti-Western sentiment have weakened the positions of the US and its European allies.

Al-Minuki was eliminated overnight as a result of “a meticulously planned and very complex” joint mission by American and Nigerian forces, Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform on Saturday.

The US president said that the senior IS commander, whom he described as “the most active terrorist in the world… thought he could hide in Africa, but little did he know we had sources who kept us informed on what he was doing.” 

“He will no longer terrorize the people of Africa, or help plan operations to target Americans. With his removal, ISIS’s global operation is greatly diminished,” he wrote.

Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu said in a post on X that al-Minuki was killed together with several of his lieutenants in a strike at an Islamic State compound in the Lake Chad Basin.

US Africa Command (AFRICOM) later released aerial footage of the bombardment.

Washington labeled Al-Minuki, who is a Nigerian national, a “specially designated global terrorist” in 2023 under the administration of then President Joe Biden. The State Department said that he was part of an administrative body within IS that provides “operational guidance and funding around the world.”