*Haul Needed Extra Plane To Evacuate
*199 Jihadists Killed In A Single Raid
* Analysing Confiscated Materials
THE United States (US) 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.
Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Counterterrorism at the National Security Council (NSC), Sebastian Gorka, said during an interview with Marissa Streit, the CEO of PragerU, a US conservative media organisation, and the US government 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, he stated that US intelligence agencies had begun to examine the confiscated devices to gain deeper insight into the communications, networks and operational methods of the Islamic State (ISIS).
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 9-11, 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.”
The US has since late 2025, 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.
Recall 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.
According to ThisDay reports, 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.
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, adding: “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.”
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 US was working with African governments to prevent that strategy from succeeding, noting: “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 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.
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, saying: “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.”
