{"id":20892,"date":"2026-05-17T14:18:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T14:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/?p=20892"},"modified":"2026-05-17T14:18:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T14:18:21","slug":"isis-second-in-command-abu-bilal-al-minuki-killed-by-us-and-nigerian-forces-presidents-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/20892\/isis-second-in-command-abu-bilal-al-minuki-killed-by-us-and-nigerian-forces-presidents-say\/","title":{"rendered":"ISIS second-in-command Abu-Bilal al-Minuki killed by US and Nigerian forces, presidents say"},"content":{"rendered":"

Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, the second in command of ISIS globally, \u200chas been killed in an operation conducted by U.S. and Nigerian forces in the northeast of the African country, U.S.\u00a0President Donald Trump\u00a0and his counterpart in Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, said.<\/p>\n

Trump announced the strike in a Truth Social post late on Friday in the United \u200bStates, with Tinubu on Saturday describing it as a “significant example of effective collaboration in the fight against terrorism”.<\/p>\n

“Tonight, \u200bat my direction, brave American forces and the Armed Forces of Nigeria flawlessly executed a \u2060meticulously planned and very complex mission to eliminate the most active terrorist in the world from the battlefield. Abu-Bilal \u200bal-Minuki… thought he could hide in Africa, but little did he know we had sources who kept us informed on \u200bwhat he was doing,” Trump said on Truth Social.<\/p>\n

In a statement\u00a0posted on X<\/a>, Tinubu said early assessments confirmed the elimination of al-Minuki \u2014 also known as Abu-Mainok \u2014 along with several of his lieutenants, during a strike on his compound in the Lake Chad Basin.<\/p>\n

Tinubu said Nigerian \u200bforces worked closely with the U.S. military in what he called a daring joint operation that dealt a heavy \u200bblow to the ranks of the Islamic State. Trump, who has previously accused Nigeria of failing to protect Christians from Islamist militants, \u200cthanked the \u2060Nigerian government for its partnership in the operation.<\/p>\n

The Nigerian Army, also\u00a0on X, <\/a>said the strike was carried out in Metele in Borno State, where troops carried out a precision air-land operation in close coordination with U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM).<\/p>\n

Borno has endured an insurgency waged by Boko Haram and its splinter group Islamic State West Africa Province for 17 years \u200bthat has killed thousands and \u200bdisplaced 2 million people.<\/p>\n

The latest \u2060operation, carried out under Nigeria’s ongoing counter-insurgency initiative, commenced at approximately 12:01 a.m. and concluded around 4 a.m. on Saturday and was executed with no casualties or loss of \u200bassets, the army added.<\/p>\n

Al-Minuki, a Nigerian national, was designated a “specially designated global terrorist” by the \u200bBiden administration \u2060in 2023, according to the U.S. Federal Register.<\/p>\n

Nigeria denies discriminating against any religion, saying its security forces target armed groups that attack both Christians and Muslims.<\/p>\n

The U.S. carried out strikes targeting Islamic State-linked militants in Nigeria in December. Since then, Washington \u2060has\u00a0deployed<\/a>\u00a0drones \u200band 200 troops to provide training and intelligence support to the \u200bNigerian military against Islamic State and al Qaeda-linked insurgencies that are spreading across West Africa.<\/p>\n

The U.S. forces were operating in a strictly non-combat role, Nigerian \u200bmilitary officials said earlier this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, the second in command of ISIS globally, \u200chas been killed in an operation conducted by U.S. and Nigerian forces in the northeast of the African country, U.S.\u00a0President Donald Trump\u00a0and his counterpart in Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, said. Trump announced the strike in a Truth Social post late on Friday in the United \u200bStates, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20893,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":4,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"Reuters","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2362,1129,27],"tags":[5149,1133,1433,1643,5150,175],"class_list":["post-20892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-security","category-west-africa","tag-abu-bilal-al-minuki","tag-boko-haram","tag-bola-ahmed-tinubu","tag-donald-trump","tag-isis","tag-nigeria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20892"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20894,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20892\/revisions\/20894"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}