Washington is calling it the biggest intelligence win against ISIS since September 11. And it happened right here in Nigeria's troubled northeast.
US counterterrorism officials say a recent joint operation wiped out 199 suspected jihadists in a series of precision strikes on militant camps. Sebastian Gorka, the US Senior Director for Counterterrorism, told reporters he watched the raid from the White House Situation Room three weeks ago. He described the fighters as "199 jihadist terrorists who will not harm Americans again".
Nigeria's Defence Headquarters puts the number slightly lower. It confirmed 175 IS fighters were killed in the joint US-Nigeria airstrikes, including Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, who Washington calls ISIS's global second-in-command.
The real headline, though, is what was found after the guns went silent.
American officials say troops recovered a massive trove of electronics from the camps — laptops, mobile phones, hard drives, memory sticks and other devices. The haul is being described as the largest terrorist electronics cache seized since 9/11, three times bigger than any previous post-9/11 recovery.
US officers said the volume was so large it required additional airlift to move everything out for forensic analysis. Analysts are now combing through the data to map how ISIS fighters communicate, who funds them, and how leadership orders move across borders.
President Donald Trump, posting on Truth Social late Thursday, said he ordered the strike himself. He called it a "powerful and deadly" action against ISIS elements in northwest Nigeria who had been "targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians".
Nigeria's government has backed the cooperation. The Foreign Ministry said the operation was a direct response to rising attacks on civilians, while AFRICOM commanders praised Nigerian intelligence for helping develop the targets.
The timing matters. Security experts have warned for months that ISIS-linked groups — especially ISWAP and cells pledging loyalty to the so-called Islamic State in the Sahel — are regrouping across West Africa. The region has already seen over 40,000 deaths and about 2 million displaced since 2009.
If the data holds up, this cache could give investigators their clearest look yet at the network's inner workings. Names, bank channels, chat logs, attack plans. US officials believe it will help disrupt future plots not just in Nigeria, but across the wider Sahel and beyond.
For now, both countries are calling it a joint success. For families in Borno, Sokoto and other frontline states, the hope is that intelligence turns into fewer attacks on the ground.
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