American forces have killed Isis’s “second-in-command” in a “complex mission” in Nigeria, Donald Trump has said.
The President confirmed the “most active terrorist in the world” had been taken out in a joint raid with Nigerian forces.
Abu-Bilal Al-Minuki “thought he could hide in Africa, but little did he know we had sources who kept us informed on what he was doing”, Mr Trump added.
The Nigerian-born Islamist had been an Isis higher-up since 2018, and was placed on a watchlist of “Specially Designated Global Terrorists” in 2023.
More specifically, Al-Minuki, also known as Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn Ali Al-Mainuki, was a senior leader in the Isis GDP Al-Furqan Office in sub-Saharan Africa.
Experts classify Al-Furqan as an elusive organisation based in Nigeria which funds and oversees Isis branches under the GDP, Isis’s General Directorate of Provinces, its global control group.
The US Treasury says the group runs Isis funding across countries including Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Cameroon, Niger and Chad.
“He will no longer terrorise the people of Africa, or help plan operations to target Americans,” Mr Trump added in his statement.
“With his removal, Isis’s global operation is greatly diminished.”
In a joint raid with Nigerian troops, US forces wiped out Isis’s second-in-command, the President said
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Under Mr Trump, the US has carried out multiple operations in Nigeria against terrorists, with the President explicitly blaming radical Islamists for the “mass slaughter” of Christians.
“Thousands and thousands of Christians are being killed,” he said in November. “Something has to be done.”
Shortly afterwards, American forces launched “powerful and deadly” strikes against Isis in northwest Nigeria on Christmas Day.
“They didn’t think that was coming, but we hit them hard. Every camp got decimated,” he told Politico.
Nigeria has long been fighting several jihadist groups, including the bloodthirsty Boko Haram.
American forces launched ‘powerful and deadly’ strikes against Isis in northwest Nigeria on Christmas Day
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In 2016, now-dead Al-Minuki had a “falling-out” with Boko Haram leader Mamman Nur, which led to a public split between the two organisations which weakened Isis’s regional presence.
But Islamist groups are still entrenched in northeast Nigeria, where dozens of Christians were massacred and a church was burned to the ground just days ago.
Terrorists have killed thousands of people in the region for more than a decade.
Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country and is home to about 220 million people, divided evenly between Christians and Muslims.
In February, US officials said 200 American troops would be sent to Nigeria specifically to train the country’s military to fight Islamists.
PICTURED: A vehicle belonging to Isis in West Africa, where the terrorist group has run riot for years
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But this morning, the President appeared to contradict that, writing how “brave American forces and the armed forces of Nigeria flawlessly executed a meticulously planned and very complex mission” to snag Al-Minuki.
Nigerian Defence Minister Christopher Musa did not not provide any details about the location or duration of stay of US troops at the time.
The deployment was said to have followed a Nigerian request and was focused on “intelligence support”.
“Our partnership with Nigeria is a great example of a very willing and capable partner who requested the unique capabilities that only the US can bring,” said General Dagvin Anderson of US Africa Command (Africom).
