May 16, 2026, 08:44May 16, 2026, 08:44
Wants to have weakened the global ability of IS to act: US President Donald Trump.Image: keystone
According to President Donald Trump, the deputy head of the terrorist organization Islamic State (IS) was “eliminated” during a joint operation by the Nigerian armed forces and the US military. The troops removed Abu Bilal al-Minuki, the “most active terrorist in the world,” “from the battlefield,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “He will no longer terrorize the people of Africa or help plan operations against Americans,” said the US President. His wording suggests that the IS commander was killed – even if Trump did not write this clearly.
The IS’s global ability to act has been significantly weakened, Trump wrote. In his post he did not provide any further information about the military operation – neither the time, the location nor possible additional victims. It also remained unclear whether the US military’s action was more of a support operation from the air or whether US soldiers were also deployed on the ground.
Trump thanked the Nigerian government for its cooperation. This leads to the assumption that the military operation took place in Nigeria. Several terrorist groups are active in the north and northeast of the West African country, including the Islamists from Boko Haram and IS offshoots. The north of Nigeria also borders the Sahel state of Niger, where several terrorist groups such as the Islamic State are also active.
The US government had already imposed sanctions on the now killed IS commander under the internationally more common name spelling Al-Mainuki. He is said to have been born in 1982 as a Nigerian citizen.
According to US information, the supreme head of the terrorist organization has been Abu Hafez al-Hashimi al-Kuraishi since 2023. He is now the fifth man to head the terrorist militia since it declared a “caliphate” in Syria and Iraq in the summer of 2014. (sda/dpa)