- DHQ clarifies air, says no fresh operation yet
The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) says recent disclosure by the United States (US) regarding the neutralization of 199 jihadists and recovery of massive cache of ISIS arms, ammunition and electronic equipment was not a fresh operation but the declassification of the successful joint Nigeria-US counter-terrorism mission carried out in May 2026
According to the Nigerian military, the highly sought-after electronic equipment haul, which came from that landmark and sweeping intelligence-driven mission, clearly dealt a devastating blow to the extremist network across Nigeria.
Director of Defence Information, Major General Samaila Uba, explained to some reporters that the operation had already been announced by the Nigerian military, noting that the latest details released by the US authorities were previously classified.
He said: “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”.
General Uba’s clarification comes against the backdrop of recent comments by the US Senior Director for Counterterrorism at the National Security Council, Dr. Sebastian Gorka, who described the mission as one of the most successful counter-terrorism operations undertaken by the current US administration.
Dr Gorka, while referencing the said operation, had disclosed that it yielded the largest cache of enemy electronic equipment recovered since the September 11, 2001 attacks, adding: “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.”
The top US Security official had further hinted that the intelligence recovered would strengthen efforts to dismantle ISIS networks, stressing that the administration had adopted a more aggressive counter-terrorism strategy.
In Gorka’s words: “We are not watching and waiting. We are dealing death to bad people”, noting that extremist groups continued to exploit ungoverned spaces in Africa to regroup for their deadly criminal activities.
He maintained that sustained cooperation remained critical, saying, “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.”
Recalled that in November 2025, the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu had embarked on a high-level visit to Washington in a renewed Nigeria-US security collaboration that led to the establishment of a Joint Working Group on Security and subsequent joint operations against terrorist enclaves in the country’s North-East region.
