ISIS | Pakistan

US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Abu Bilal al-Minuki, second in command of ISIS globally, had been eliminated in an operation conducted by US and Nigerian forces. “Tonight, at my direction, brave American forces and the Armed Forces of Nigeria flawlessly executed a meticulously planned and very complex mission to eliminate the most active terrorist in the world from the battlefield. “Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, second in command of ISIS globally, thought he could hide in Africa, but little did he know we had sources who kept us informed on what he was doing,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. He also thanked the Nigerian government for its partnership in the operation. Nigeria had earlier come under scrutiny from Trump who had said that Christians there were being persecuted, which the African nation’s government denies. The US had struck what it said were militant bases in northwestern Nigeria on Christmas Day last year, following Trump’s accusations. Meanwhile, Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu and ...

The US military launched large-scale strikes against dozens of Islamic State targets in Syria on Friday in retaliation for an attack on American personnel, US officials said. A US-led coalition had already been carrying out airstrikes and ground operations in Syria targeting Islamic State suspects in recent months, often with the involvement of Syria’s security forces. US President Donald Trump had vowed to retaliate after a suspected ISIS attack killed US personnel last weekend in Syria. US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the strikes targeted “ISIS fighters, infrastructure, and weapons sites” and said the operation was “OPERATION HAWKEYE STRIKE”. “This is not the beginning of a war it is a declaration of vengeance,” Hegseth said. “Today, we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them. And we will continue,” he added. Trump said on social media that the Syrian government fully supported the strikes and that the US was inflicting “very serious retaliation”. At a speech in North Carolina on Friday night,...