US Africa Command said on Tuesday that its forces launched airstrikes in northeastern Nigeria on May 18, marking the third day in a row that the US conducted strikes in the West African nation.
AFRICOM said the latest strikes were launched in coordination with the Nigerian government and claimed that the targets of the strikes were “ISIS terrorists,” and added that “complete assessments” of the attacks are “ongoing.”
The Nigerian military claimed that “175 ISIS terrorists have been eliminated” in the area since the joint US-Nigerian military operations began on May 16, though the Nigerian government is known for covering up civilian casualties and has been accused of killing hundreds of civilians in airstrikes in recent months.
“The joint strikes have resulted in the destruction of ISIS checkpoints, weapons caches, logistical hubs, military equipment and financial networks used to sustain terrorist operations,” Nigeria’s Defense Headquarters wrote on X. “The joint operations will continue to hunt down and destroy those who threaten our nation and regional stability.”
The US-Nigerian military offensive started with an attack that the two countries claimed killed a senior ISIS leader named Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, an operation that involved US special operations forces and Nigerian commandos conducting a helicopter raid and the US launching airstrikes.
The May 16 US-Nigerian operation 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.
