U.S. Africa Command confirmed Monday that American and Nigerian forces carried out additional kinetic strikes against ISIS militants in northeastern Nigeria, the latest in a rapid series of operations that began with the killing of the terror group's global second-in-command days earlier.
AFRICOM said the strikes were conducted in coordination with Nigeria's government and that no American or Nigerian forces were harmed. Complete damage assessments remain ongoing, but the command framed the operation as part of a sustained campaign to degrade ISIS's ability to project violence from its African foothold.
The Monday strikes followed President Donald Trump's late-Friday announcement that a joint U.S.-Nigerian operation had killed Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, whom Trump described as ISIS's second-in-command globally. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth confirmed the operation Saturday, saying U.S. forces acted alongside the Armed Forces of Nigeria to eliminate al-Minuki and other ISIS leaders. Fox News reported that the follow-up strikes on Monday marked a continued push against the network al-Minuki once helped run.
How the operation unfolded
Trump broke the news on Truth Social late Friday, declaring that 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." The president added: "He will no longer terrorize the people of Africa, or help plan operations to target Americans."
Hegseth filled in operational detail the next day. As Breitbart reported, the raid took place in Metele, Borno State, in Nigeria's northeast. The Nigerian Army said the operation used coordinated air-land tactics and ended with zero casualties or loss of assets for the attacking forces. Several of al-Minuki's lieutenants were also killed.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu confirmed al-Minuki's death and called it a "heavy blow against the Islamic State."
Trump's statement on the mission was direct, as quoted by Breitbart:
"Tonight, 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."
Hegseth was blunter. He said U.S. forces had spent months tracking al-Minuki, a leader he described as targeting Christians in the region:
"So, for months, we hunted this top ISIS leader in Nigeria who was killing Christians, and we killed him, and his entire posse."
The rapid follow-up strikes on Monday suggest the intelligence haul from the al-Minuki operation may have opened a window to hit additional ISIS positions before fighters could scatter. AFRICOM has not disclosed how many militants were killed or injured in the Monday action. The terror threats the U.S. continues to confront at home and abroad remain a pressing concern, as seen when the FBI thwarted terror plots in four states during the holiday season.
A broader campaign against ISIS in Africa
The Nigeria operations did not emerge from thin air. They fit inside a broader pattern of U.S. military action against ISIS that has accelerated under the Trump administration.
In February, U.S. Central Command said it carried out multiple strikes against more than 30 ISIS targets in Syria, an effort CENTCOM described as intended to "sustain relentless military pressure on remnants from the terrorist network." Those strikes followed a December ambush in Syria that killed U.S. troops, an attack that sharpened Washington's appetite for decisive action against the group's remaining infrastructure.
The Africa theater, however, carries its own dynamics. ISIS affiliates have expanded across the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin for years, exploiting weak governance and porous borders. The joint U.S.-Nigerian strike that killed ISIS's global operations chief in the Lake Chad Basin underscored how deeply the group had embedded itself on the continent.
Al-Minuki's presence in Borno State, a region long terrorized by Boko Haram and its ISIS-aligned splinter factions, confirmed that senior ISIS leadership viewed Africa not as a sideshow but as an operational base for planning attacks with global reach.
Christmas Day strikes set the stage
The campaign's roots stretch back further. On Christmas Day, Trump ordered what he called "powerful and deadly" airstrikes against ISIS targets in northwestern Nigeria. The president framed the operation as retaliation for attacks on Christians, writing on Truth Social that the strikes targeted "ISIS Terrorist Scum." The New York Post reported that AFRICOM said the Christmas Day strikes took place in Sokoto state and that initial assessments indicated multiple ISIS terrorists were killed.
A War Department official told the Post that the strikes were carried out with the Nigerian government's approval. Nigeria's Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed the operation was part of ongoing U.S.-Nigeria security cooperation.
Trump later explained his reasoning on WABC radio, as the Washington Examiner reported:
"I told Nigeria, and I told the people around Nigeria that if you do it, you're going to get hit."
He added: "We hit ISIS... and they really got hit hard yesterday. So they got a very bad Christmas present." The administration had reportedly been preparing the strikes for weeks, alongside new visa restrictions announced by Secretary of State Marco Rubio in response to anti-Christian violence in Nigeria. Militant violence continues to pose threats across multiple regions, including incidents like the car bombing that killed Pakistani police officers in Bannu.
On the ground: what villagers saw
The Christmas Day strikes left a mark beyond the military ledger. Residents in Jabo, a village near the strike zone in northwestern Nigeria, described scenes of panic and confusion. Newsmax reported that villagers saw a bright red sky for hours, felt intense heat and shaking, and had no official information about who had been targeted or whether there were civilian casualties.
Resident Sanusi Madabo told reporters: "The light burned bright for hours... It was almost like daytime." Another villager, Abubakar Sani, said: "Our rooms began to shake, and then fire broke out."
Officials did not release details on exact targets or a full casualty count from the December strikes. Some analysts cited by Newsmax said the operation may have targeted the Lakurawa group, whose ties to ISIS remain unproven. That ambiguity has not slowed the administration's broader campaign. The security environment worldwide remains volatile, with armed attacks on diplomatic targets, like the shootout outside the Israeli consulate in Istanbul, reinforcing the persistent nature of the threat.
What remains unanswered
AFRICOM has yet to release full assessments from the Monday strikes. The command has not disclosed the number of ISIS fighters killed or the specific location in northeastern Nigeria that was hit. It is also unclear whether the Monday operation and a strike referenced in AFRICOM imagery dated Sunday, May 17, 2026, were part of the same action or separate missions.
What is clear is the tempo. From the Christmas Day airstrikes in Sokoto state, to the February campaign against more than 30 ISIS targets in Syria, to the killing of al-Minuki in Borno State, to Monday's follow-up operation, the administration has maintained a pace of action against ISIS that leaves little room for the group to regroup.
AFRICOM's statement captured the strategic logic plainly: "The removal of these terrorists diminishes the group's capacity to plan attacks that threaten the safety and security of the U.S. and our partners."
For years, critics warned that ISIS was metastasizing across Africa while Washington looked the other way. This administration decided to stop looking and start shooting. The results speak for themselves.
