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Nigeria’s military on Tuesday said that joint airstrikes with the United States had killed 175 Islamic State (IS) fighters in the country’s northeast, including the militant group’s global second-in-command.
The remote region has been gripped by an extremist insurgency since 2009, first by Boko Haram, then its offshoot and rival, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).
According to the United Nations, more than 40,000 people have been killed and two million others displaced.
US and Nigerian forces killed Abu Bilal al-Minuki, an IS leader described as the “most active terrorist” in the world, at a remote village in the northeast last weekend.
