President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Pressure One, Friday, Could 15, 2026, as he returns from a visit to Beijing, China.
Mark Schiefelbein/AP
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Mark Schiefelbein/AP
WASHINGTON — U.S. and Nigerian forces killed a frontrunner of the Islamic State group in Nigeria in a mission carried out Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump stated.
Trump introduced the joint operation in Africa’s most populous nation in a late-night social media publish that provided few particulars. He stated Abu Bakr al-Mainuki was second in control of the Islamic State group globally and “thought he could hide in Africa, but little did he know we had sources who kept us informed on what he was doing.”
Al-Mainuki was seen as the important thing determine in IS organizing and finance, and had been plotting assaults towards the USA and its pursuits, based on an official who spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t licensed to share delicate info.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu confirmed the operation and stated Al-Mainuki was killed alongside “several of his lieutenants, during a strike on his compound in the Lake Chad Basin.”
Born in Nigeria’s Borno province in 1982, al-Mainuki took the helm of the IS department in West Africa after the group’s earlier chief within the area, Mamman Nur, was killed in 2018, based on the Counter Extremism Venture, which tracks militant teams.
Al-Mainuki was primarily based within the Sahel space, the monitoring group stated, including that it’s believed that he fought in Libya when IS was energetic within the North African nation greater than a decade in the past. He was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2023.
Trump, in his social media announcement, stated Al-Mainuki was “second in command globally,” hiding in Africa, a declare that analysts say is off the mark.
They are saying Al-Mainuki was the deputy to Abu Musab al-Barnawi, the chief of the Islamic State West African Province who was reported to have died in 2021. He’s thought to be one of many central proponents of the formation of ISWAP after its break up with Boko Haram in 2016.
“If confirmed, the killing of Al-Mainuki is huge because this is the first time a security agency has killed someone this high in the ranking of ISWAP,” Malik Samuel, a senior researcher at Good Governance Africa who focuses on rebel teams in Nigeria, stated.
“The potential to cause chaos within the group is also there because the operation must have been carried out in the heart of ISWAP’s fortified base, which is very difficult to access.”
Trump in December directed U.S. forces to launch strikes towards the Islamic State group in Nigeria, although he launched little element then in regards to the impression.
The Nigerian navy stated the operation was a results of its “recently formed U.S.-Nigeria partnership and intelligence sharing efforts.” Samalia Uba, the navy spokesperson, stated in a press release that the operation has additionally “disrupted a violent terrorist network that endangered Nigeria and the broader West African region.”
Nigeria has been battling a number of armed teams, together with at the least two affiliated with IS, because it has grappled with a multifaceted safety disaster. IS associates in Africa have emerged as among the continent’s most energetic militant teams following the collapse of the IS caliphate in Syria and Iraq in 2017.
The U.S. in February despatched troops to the West African nation to assist advise its navy and in March, the U.S. additionally deployed drones there after Trump alleged that Christians are being focused in Nigeria’s safety disaster.
The Friday night time operation was the newest occasion in a string of covert missions overseas that Trump has introduced this yr, beginning with the beautiful in a single day raid in January to seize and take away Venezuela’s then-leader Nicolás Maduro and whisk him to the U.S., adopted almost two months later by the launch of strikes that kicked off the warfare with Iran.
