US and Nigerian forces killed a leader of the Islamic State group in Nigeria in a mission carried out on Friday, according to US President Trump. Trump announced the joint operation in Africa's most populous country in a late-night social media post that offered few details, per the AP. He said Abu Bakr al-Mainuki was second-in-command 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 viewed as the key figure in ISIS organizing and finance and had been plotting attacks against the US and its interests, according to an anonymous official.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu confirmed the operation and said Al-Mainuki was killed alongside "several of his lieutenants, during a strike on his compound in the Lake Chad Basin." According to a spokesperson for the Nigerian military task force that carried out the operation, the operation was a "highly complex precision air-land operation" and was carried out during three hours of darkness early Saturday without any casualties or loss of assets. "His elimination represents the single most consequential counterterrorism outcome" in the region since the inception of the operation in 2015, that rep said in a statement.
Al-Mainuki took the helm of the ISIS branch in West Africa after the group's previous leader in the region, Mamman Nur, was killed in 2018, according to the Counter Extremism Project. Al-Mainuki was based in the Sahel area, the monitoring group said, adding that it's believed he fought in Libya when ISIS was active in the North African nation more than a decade ago. He was sanctioned by the US in 2023. There's no way to verify his position within ISIS independently, though the Nigerian military also says, based on intel reports, that Al-Mainuki may have been "elevated" earlier this year to the second-highest post within ISIS.
The Nigerian military said the operation was a result of recently formed US-Nigeria partnership and intelligence-sharing efforts. Nigeria has been battling multiple armed groups, including at least two affiliated with ISIS, as it has grappled with a multifaceted security crisis. The Friday night operation was the latest instance in a string of covert missions abroad that Trump has announced this year, starting with the stunning overnight raid in January to capture and remove Venezuela's then-leader, Nicolas Maduro, and whisk him to the US, followed nearly two months later by the launch of strikes that kicked off the war with Iran. More here.
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