Joint military forces from Nigeria and the United States have launched a fresh wave of airstrikes targeting Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) jihadists in northeast Nigeria, according to a statement released Monday by the US Africa Command (Africom).
The operations, which took place on Sunday, targeted verified positions of the militant group. Officials confirmed that intelligence verified the targets as Islamic State (IS) fighters, adding that full assessments of the impact are currently underway and no US or Nigerian personnel were harmed during the mission.
The strategic bombardment comes just two days after both nations announced the elimination of Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, a top-tier Islamic State leader, during a separate joint operation in the West African nation.
Al-Minuki, who has been under US sanctions since 2023, was widely identified as the global terror group’s second-in-command. His death is being viewed as a major blow to the faction’s command structure in the region.
Northern Nigeria has long been plagued by a complex security crisis, battling a double threat from both IS-allied jihadist groups and heavily armed criminal gangs.
These independent syndicates regularly terrorize local villages, conduct mass kidnappings for ransom, and displace thousands of civilians, complicating the overstretched security forces’ efforts to maintain stability.
The persistent instability has also drawn international political scrutiny, prompting criticism from US President Donald Trump, who previously alleged that Nigeria’s Christian population was being systematically persecuted.
However, the Nigerian government has strongly rejected that narrative, maintaining that the violence is indiscriminate and insisting that both Christian and Muslim communities suffer equally at the hands of the insurgents.
