199 Jihadists Killed In May Joint Operation, Not New Raid — DHQ Clarifies US Claims

The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has clarified that the recent disclosure by the United States (US) on the killing of 199 jihadists and the recovery of a large cache of ISIS arms, ammunition and electronic equipment was not a fresh military operation.

The military said the operation was part of a successful joint Nigeria-United States counter-terrorism mission carried out in May 2026, adding that the latest details released by US authorities were previously classified.

The Director of Defence Information, Maj. Gen. Samaila Uba, disclosed this in an interview with Vanguard on Monday.

“This is not a new operation. We have previously communicated our highly successful joint operations in May. What you are hearing are some declassified information concerning our previous operation being given out now. However, Nigeria-US joint operations and collaboration are very much on course,” he said.

The clarification followed comments by the US Senior Director for Counterterrorism at the National Security Council, Dr. Sebastian Gorka, who described the operation as one of the most successful counter-terrorism missions undertaken by the current US administration.

Gorka said the operation resulted in the recovery of the largest cache of enemy electronic equipment since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.

“We needed an extra plane to bring home all the electronic material that we captured in those camps. The haul was three times bigger than any enemy electronics haul since 9-11.

“That is priceless because now our experts are taking apart all of that information, looking at how ISIS is communicating with each other,” he said.

He noted that intelligence recovered from the operation would strengthen efforts to dismantle ISIS networks.

“We are not watching and waiting. We are dealing death to bad people,” Gorka added, stressing that extremist groups continued to exploit ungoverned spaces across Africa to regroup.

The renewed security cooperation between Nigeria and the United States followed the visit of the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, to Washington in November 2025.

The visit led to the establishment of a Joint Working Group on Security and subsequent joint operations against terrorist enclaves in Nigeria’s North-East.

Gorka stressed the need for sustained collaboration, noting that terrorist groups continued to seek ungoverned territories to rebuild their networks.

“Terrorists need ungoverned space. They need somewhere where they can hang out and rebuild. Africa has a lot of ungoverned space. That’s why I focus a lot of my attention on that region of the world where ISIS is trying to reconstitute a caliphate,” he said.