The US has claimed more airstrikes in Nigeria as the Trump administration continues to escalate US military involvement in the country.
US Africa Command said in a press release that it conducted “additional kinetic strikes against ISIS in Northeastern Nigeria” on May 17, a day after the US and Nigeria carried out a joint commando operation that the two countries claimed killed a senior ISIS leader.
US officials told The New York Times that the latest US strikes were carried out by US MQ-9 Reaper drones and AC-130 gunships. The US deployed MQ-9 drones to Nigeria along with 200 troops earlier this year, but it’s unclear if the US also has AC-130 gunships in the country.
The Nigerian military claimed that the May 17 strikes killed 20 members of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). The Times said that it couldn’t verify whether any civilians were harmed and noted that the Nigerian government has been accused of killing hundreds of civilians in recent airstrikes.
“Following observed convergence and migration of terrorist elements, multiple airstrikes were conducted, resulting in the elimination of more than 20 ISIS/ISWAP fighters,” Nigeria’s Defense Headquarters said in a statement on X.
The May 16 US-Nigerian operation against the ISIS commander was the first known direct US military action in Nigeria since President Trump ordered strikes in the country on Christmas Day 2025. The Christmas strikes were said to target ISIS fighters in northwestern Nigeria, though US Tomahawk missiles fell on two villages far from the intended target.
The Trump administration launched the new military intervention in Nigeria without authorization from Congress and framed the strikes as being launched in defense of Nigeria’s Christians, though that talking point was missing from President Trump’s statement on the May 16 military operation.
