The Body Count Behind the Victory Lap: America's Shadow War in Nigeria
The United States Africa Command announced that more than 200 terrorists had been killed in coordinated operations with Nigerian forces against Islamic State fighters in the country’s northeast, among them Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, whom American officials described as the terror group’s director of global operations and the most active terrorist in the world.
President Trump hailed the operation, saying Mr. al-Minuki “thought he could hide in Africa” and crediting the Nigerian government’s partnership. AFRICOM said no American or Nigerian personnel were harmed.
The operation involved approximately two dozen U.S. special operations forces, including Navy SEALs, who arrived by helicopter with the intent to capture al-Minuki on islands in the Lake Chad Basin. After a three-hour firefight, an airstrike was called on his compound.
It was, by any measure, a significant counterterrorism result. And yet even as Washington touts the partnership’s successes, a darker ledger is accumulating beneath the headline numbers.
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