*Says they needed extra plane to evacuate terrorists’ electronic devices seized, 199 jihadists killed in a single raid
*Discloses materials confiscated being analysed by American intelligence
*Nigerian raid was like a movie, says top security official
*Blames ungoverned spaces for occupation of Islamists in Africa
*Reveals over 1,000 jihadists killed by Trump administration so far
Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
The United States has disclosed that the cache of seized materials from terrorists during its recent raid in Nigeria was the largest haul of enemy electronic equipment recovered since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
According to the US government, it had to deploy an additional aircraft to evacuate electronic devices and other intelligence materials seized during the counter-terrorism operation, due to the sheer size of the equipment.
Besides, Washington revealed that US intelligence agencies had begun to examine the devices confiscated to gain deeper insight into the communications, networks and operational methods of the Islamic State (ISIS).
The disclosure was made by the United States Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Counterterrorism at the National Security Council, Dr. Sebastian Gorka, during an interview with Marissa Streit, the CEO of PragerU, a US conservative media organisation.
Gorka described the Nigerian mission as one of the most significant counter-terrorism successes recorded by the administration, likening the operation to scenes from a Hollywood action thriller.
He said that particular operation resulted in the killing of 199 jihadists in a single raid, which he described as the largest enemy neutralisation in a single counter-terrorism operation since the September 11 attacks.
“I can talk about this because it has been declassified. The President is not…going around the world like some lunatic neocon saying, ‘we will turn the world into America’.
“But if you’re threatening Americans, or if you’re targeting Christians, he has a very strong message to send to you, whether it was his Christmas Day strike, or three weeks ago, what we did in Nigeria.
“Three weeks ago in Nigeria, I watched it live from the Situation Room. It was like being in a Tom Clancy movie, but it’s better because it’s real. I watched our operatives kill 199 jihadists in one operation.
“Now, why is this important? That is the biggest neutralisation enemy killed in action since September the 11th. 199 jihadists who will not harm Americans again.
“Not only that, from that raid we brought home, 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. We are so back in the game of counterterrorism. It is just superlative to watch our professionals,” he explained.
Since late 2025, the United States has significantly expanded security cooperation with Nigeria, shifting from largely advisory engagement to a more structured partnership centred on intelligence sharing, counterterrorism operations, institutional reform and military capacity building.
THISDAY recalled that the renewed engagement gathered pace after National Security Adviser (NSA) Nuhu Ribadu led a high-level delegation to Washington in November 2025, where both countries agreed to establish a Nigeria-US Joint Working Group on security.
Apart from the Christmas day bombing of terrorists’ enclaves in the north, one of the most significant achievements was a joint Nigerian-U.S. operation in Borno State that eliminated several Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) militants, including the group’s Deputy Leader, Abu Bakr al-Mainuki.
But the US counter-terrorism chief added that beyond the casualties inflicted on the terrorist group, the intelligence recovered from the operation could prove even more consequential.
The White House official ieclosed further that the electronic devices were currently being analysed by American intelligence agencies as part of efforts to dismantle ISIS networks and prevent future attacks against the United States and its allies.
Gorka argued that the operation reflected a more aggressive counter-terrorism posture under President Trump, insisting that the administration had abandoned what he described as the policy of “watching and waiting.”
He said that in the administration’s first 15 months, American forces killed about 1,031 jihadists globally while also securing the freedom of 106 American hostages without paying ransom. “We are not watching and waiting. We are dealing death to bad people,” he said.
Gorka said the threat posed by extremist groups remained real and pointed to attacks carried out by ISIS and other jihadist organisations across the world, including against Christian communities in Nigeria.
“If you’re threatening Americans, or if you’re targeting Christians because they’re Christians, he has a very strong message to send to you,” Gorka said in reference to President Trump.
Speaking specifically about Africa, Gorka argued that the continent has increasingly become a target for ISIS because of the existence of vast ungoverned territories where extremist groups can regroup after suffering defeats elsewhere.
He stated that many ISIS fighters displaced from Iraq and Syria during Trump’s first administration relocated to Africa after the organisation’s so-called caliphate collapsed.
“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.
While acknowledging that many African conflicts have local roots involving resources, ethnicity and communal disputes, Gorka argued that ISIS and similar organisations attempt to exploit those grievances by imposing extremist ideologies on existing conflicts.
He said the United States was working with African governments to prevent that strategy from succeeding.
Gorka submitted that the relations between Washington and several African countries had improved significantly under the current administration after what he described as ideological disagreements during the previous U.S. administration.
“We’ve been working intelligently. I sent a team of mine out to Africa to some key states and said, look, we’re not here to tell you what to believe in. But if you’ve got a terrorist threat, that is a threat to us. Let’s work together,” he stated.
Gorka also defended Trump’s decision to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation, describing the group as the ideological foundation of several modern jihadist movements, including ISIS, Al Qaeda and Hamas.
He argued that the designation represented one of the administration’s most consequential counter-terrorism decisions and should have been implemented decades earlier.
The official further expressed concern over what he described as the continued threat posed by radical Islamist organisations to both Africa and the United States, warning that extremist groups could exploit migration routes and weak border controls to expand their reach.
He nevertheless praised ongoing efforts by senior U.S. homeland security officials to tighten border security and disrupt terrorist and cartel activities.
Detailing how the plan to move into Nigeria was arrived at, Gorka stated that Trump never wasted time before approving the exercise immediately it was brought to his attention.
“We told the President, this man has killed Americans and is planning to kill Americans. And we’ve been watching him for a year and a half under the Biden administration.
“The President (Trump) looked up from the resident desk, he looked at us and said, What do you mean we’re watching him? Kill him.
“And as a result, he took out his iconic sharpie pen. He ticked the ‘go box’ on the operational orders we had in front of him. Less than 30 hours later, I’m in the situation room under the West Wing with the National Security Advisor with my colleague from my counterterrorism team.
“And we watched like clockwork at exactly 8.45 in the morning on Saturday, this ISIS leader being permanently removed from the battlefield. The President then declassified the video of that strike. He posted it on Truth Social, it went 120 million likes in like eight hours,” he added.
