Secretary of War Pete Hegseth says US has eliminated hundreds of ISIS militants in Nigeria, praises Trump

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said U.S. forces have killed “hundreds” of Islamic State militants in Nigeria, crediting President Donald Trump’s directive to protect Christians in the country from Islamist violence.

During a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Wednesday, Hegseth said Trump charged the military with taking steps to protect Nigerian Christians roughly a year ago after learning of their targeting by the Islamic State terror group.

Building the partnerships necessary to carry out such a mission took time, the secretary said, but the president remained persistent, and the right assets were eventually put in place.

"And over the last month, and there hasn't been much coverage of this, we killed ISIS No. 2 in Nigeria, who is most responsible for killing Christians and trying to target the U.S. homeland, and have since because of the intel we gathered, killed hundreds of ISIS members who were targeting and killing Christians in Nigeria, creating a whole new opportunity there," he said.

The most significant action came on May 16, when U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) announced that U.S. forces had conducted an operation against Islamic State (also known as ISIS or IS) elements in northeastern Nigeria.

AFRICOM’s initial assessment found that Abu-Bilal al-Minuk, whom Hegseth identified as the group’s No. 2 commander and director of global operations, had been killed along with other senior Islamic State leaders. No U.S. service members were harmed.

AFRICOM commander Air Force Gen. Dagvin Anderson said the operation was made possible through U.S.-Nigeria cooperation over recent months.

“Make no mistake, our two nations will relentlessly pursue and neutralize terrorist threats and are committed to protecting our people and interests,” Anderson said.

Africa Command, in coordination with the Nigerian government, conducted additional strikes against Islamic State targets in Northeastern Nigeria on May 17 and 18.

A series of escalating U.S. military actions in Nigeria preceded the May operations. On Dec. 25, a U.S. warship fired missiles at two suspected Islamic State camps in the country.

Earlier this year, the U.S. deployed 200 troops to Nigeria to train its military to combat Islamist militants, with personnel based at multiple locations providing technical guidance on air and infantry coordination.

Nigerian military spokesman Maj. Gen. Samaila Uba previously said the government had requested the expanded support. The troops were not authorized for direct combat.

The U.S. military buildup in Nigeria followed a public confrontation between Washington and Abuja.

Trump accused the Nigerian government of allowing mass killings of Christians, calling the situation “genocide” and warning that the U.S. could cut aid or increase military pressure if attacks continued. Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu denied accusations of bias or negligence, arguing that both Christians and Muslims had been victims of the insurgency.

The main armed groups responsible for the violence are Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).

Nigeria, with a population of roughly 237 million, is nearly evenly divided between Muslims concentrated in the north and Christians in the south. In the country’s Middle Belt, years of communal violence have killed thousands and displaced predominantly Christian farming communities.

The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, a Nigerian nonprofit, estimated that Islamist militants killed 43,000 Christians and 29,000 Muslims in Nigeria between 2009 and 2021.

More recent figures from Open Doors U.S., a Christian advocacy organization, show the toll continuing to rise. Its 2025 World Watch List found that of the 4,849 Christians killed worldwide for their faith during the reporting period, 3,490 were Nigerian, up from 3,100 the previous year.

Ryan Brown, the organization’s chief executive, previously told The Christian Post that much of the most extreme violence was concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa, which accounts for 14 of the 50 countries on the watch list. The region has a population of more than 720 million, nearly half of whom are Christian.

Globally, the Open Doors report found 388 million Christians facing high levels of persecution and discrimination, an increase of more than 8 million from the previous year.

I’m glad Mr. Trump and his team took care of those Nigerian ISIS members, because it has seemed that the Nigerian Government is either

#1. helpless to fight for their own people
#2. Or they are outnumbered, outgunned by ISIS.
#3. Or the Government is somewhat complicit in allowing a certain amount of savagery and kidnapping to occur for their own ‘protection’.

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