LAGOS: A senior Islamic State group leader, described as “the most active terrorist in the world”, has been killed in a joint operation by US and Nigerian forces in the west African country, the two countries’ presidents said.
Under US sanctions since 2023, Abu-Bilal al-Minuki was the second-in-command of IS worldwide, according to US President Donald Trump and the two militaries.
The killing comes as IS activity is increasingly concentrated in Africa, hitting a record high of 86 percent in the first quarter of 2026, up from 49 percent in all of 2024, according to global conflict monitor ACLED report released this week.
Trump said in a post on Truth Social announcing the killing, that “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”.
The Nigerian defence forces said al-Minuki was a “senior ISIS leader and one of the world’s most active terrorists”, using another name for the jihadist group.
As director of global operations for IS, al-Minuki provided strategic guidance on media and financial operations and “the development and manufacturing of weapons, explosives and drones”, according to the Nigerian military and US Africa Command (AFRICOM).
“Al-Minuki was the most active terrorist in the world and has a significant history of involvement in planning attacks and directing hostage taking,” said AFRICOM.
“Nigerian Armed Forces, working closely with the Armed Forces of the United States, conducted a daring joint operation that dealt a heavy blow to the ranks of the Islamic State,” Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu said, confirming the killing.
Tinubu said in his statement that al-Minuki, also known as Abu-Mainok, was slain along with his lieutenants, “on his compound in the Lake Chad Basin”, a restive region straddling Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
The operation was “a meticulously planned and highly complex precision air-land operation” carried out Saturday from just after midnight through 4:00 am (2300 and 0300 GMT), the Nigerian army said.
Nigerian military spokesman Sani Uba said al-Minuki had established a “concealed and fortified enclave” at a remote village in the Borno State in the northeast, the epicentre of a 17-year armed insurgency.
The Nigerian military sees al-Minuki’s death as removing a “critical node through which ISIS coordinated and directed operations across different regions of the world”.
