<p>President <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a> said late Friday that US and Nigerian forces had killed a top leader of the Islamic State group who was hiding in Africa, where the United States has been targeting Islamic militants whom the president says are killing Christians.</p><p>In a social media post, Trump said he had directed US forces in an operation Friday night with the Nigerian military to eliminate the leader, Abu-Bilal al-Mainuki.</p><p>Al-Mainuki was designated a terrorist and one of the leaders of the Islamic State group by the State Department in 2023. He was a Nigerian citizen, according to the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which had sanctioned him.</p>.Faith and firepower: Inside Trump’s turn on Nigeria. <p>Trump said al-Mainuki had been hiding in Africa but did not specify where he was killed or provide details about the mission, which he said was “very complex.”</p><p>“He will no longer terrorize the people of Africa, or help plan operations to target Americans,” Trump said in the post.</p><p>President Bola Tinubu of Nigeria said in a statement on social media that the mission had struck al-Mainuki’s compound near Lake Chad, which is at the intersection of four countries, and killed several of his lieutenants. He did not specify the location of the compound.</p><p>Both Trump and the Nigerian military identified al-Mainuki as the second-most-senior leader in the Islamic State group, a position the military said he might have received “as recently as February 2026.” He had earlier overseen “ISIS-linked operations across the Sahel and West Africa,” the military said, using an alternative name for the Islamic State group.</p><p>Nigeria’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that al-Mainuki had been responsible for recent attacks against the military in the country’s northeast. A spokesperson for US Africa Command said it did not have anything to add to Trump’s statement.</p><p>The US military has launched a number of attacks against Islamic jihadis in Nigeria since December, when a US missile strike killed terrorists in two Islamic State camps in the country’s northwest. That operation was done in coordination with the Nigerian military, the US Africa Command said at the time.</p>.Trump sons' deals on 3 continents directly benefit the president. <p>Thousands of Christians and Muslims have been killed in Nigeria in land disputes, sectarian violence and terrorism, which Christian activists and Republican lawmakers in the <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/united-states">United States</a> have viewed as the persecution of Christians. There is no clear evidence to show that Christians are attacked more frequently than any other religious group in Nigeria, analysts say.</p><p>Earlier this year, a US official said that the Pentagon would send about 200 troops to Nigeria to help train its military to fight Islamic militants but that US forces would not be involved in combat operations.</p>
<p>President <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a> said late Friday that US and Nigerian forces had killed a top leader of the Islamic State group who was hiding in Africa, where the United States has been targeting Islamic militants whom the president says are killing Christians.</p><p>In a social media post, Trump said he had directed US forces in an operation Friday night with the Nigerian military to eliminate the leader, Abu-Bilal al-Mainuki.</p><p>Al-Mainuki was designated a terrorist and one of the leaders of the Islamic State group by the State Department in 2023. He was a Nigerian citizen, according to the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which had sanctioned him.</p>.Faith and firepower: Inside Trump’s turn on Nigeria. <p>Trump said al-Mainuki had been hiding in Africa but did not specify where he was killed or provide details about the mission, which he said was “very complex.”</p><p>“He will no longer terrorize the people of Africa, or help plan operations to target Americans,” Trump said in the post.</p><p>President Bola Tinubu of Nigeria said in a statement on social media that the mission had struck al-Mainuki’s compound near Lake Chad, which is at the intersection of four countries, and killed several of his lieutenants. He did not specify the location of the compound.</p><p>Both Trump and the Nigerian military identified al-Mainuki as the second-most-senior leader in the Islamic State group, a position the military said he might have received “as recently as February 2026.” He had earlier overseen “ISIS-linked operations across the Sahel and West Africa,” the military said, using an alternative name for the Islamic State group.</p><p>Nigeria’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that al-Mainuki had been responsible for recent attacks against the military in the country’s northeast. A spokesperson for US Africa Command said it did not have anything to add to Trump’s statement.</p><p>The US military has launched a number of attacks against Islamic jihadis in Nigeria since December, when a US missile strike killed terrorists in two Islamic State camps in the country’s northwest. That operation was done in coordination with the Nigerian military, the US Africa Command said at the time.</p>.Trump sons' deals on 3 continents directly benefit the president. <p>Thousands of Christians and Muslims have been killed in Nigeria in land disputes, sectarian violence and terrorism, which Christian activists and Republican lawmakers in the <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/united-states">United States</a> have viewed as the persecution of Christians. There is no clear evidence to show that Christians are attacked more frequently than any other religious group in Nigeria, analysts say.</p><p>Earlier this year, a US official said that the Pentagon would send about 200 troops to Nigeria to help train its military to fight Islamic militants but that US forces would not be involved in combat operations.</p>