Breaking: US And Nigeria Launch Coordinated Offensive Against ISIS, Rubio Reveals

United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has said that Washington is currently working closely with the Nigerian government and its security forces in ongoing counterterrorism operations.....KINDLY READ THE FULL STORY HERE▶

Rubio made the remarks on Wednesday in Washington, DC, while appearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee during a hearing on the State Department’s fiscal year 2027 budget proposal.

He noted that there is growing concern in the United States over violence targeting Christians in Nigeria.

According to him, the US is now engaged in active security cooperation with Nigerian authorities to combat terrorism.

“We are now actively in counterterrorism cooperation with the Nigerian government and Nigerian security forces, including a joint operation a couple of weeks ago that took out the number two leader of global ISIS operating from inside of the country, and that continues,” Rubio stated.

He was referring to the reported killing of Abu-Bilal Al-Minuki, described as ISIS’s second-in-command, during a joint US–Nigeria operation carried out on May 15 in the Lake Chad Basin.

US Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, said Al-Minuki was largely responsible for orchestrating attacks on Christians in Nigeria.

President Bola Tinubu also confirmed the operation, stating that Al-Minuki and several of his associates were eliminated during the mission, while expressing optimism for continued strikes against terrorist hideouts.

Following the development, military authorities reported a series of follow-up operations targeting insurgent positions across the North-East.

The Defence Headquarters said that more than 20 ISIS/ISWAP fighters were killed in coordinated airstrikes in Metele, Borno State, shortly after the initial operation.

On June 1, another joint mission involving the Nigerian military and the United States Africa Command reportedly led to the killing of 21 ISWAP fighters in an airstrike in Arege, Kukawa Local Government Area of Borno State.