Tuesday, June 30, 2026 - Sebastian Gorka, deputy assistant to US President Donald Trump and senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council, has claimed that US forces killed 199 jihadists in a single operation in Nigeria
Gorka made the statement during an interview with Marissa
Streit, CEO of conservative media organisation PragerU, aired on June 24, where
he discussed US counterterrorism operations.
Speaking on ongoing efforts against Islamist extremist
groups, Gorka said: “I can talk about this because it has been declassified.
The president is not nation-building; he’s not going around the world like some
lunatic neocon saying, ‘we will turn the world into America,'”
He added that US forces had recently conducted a major
strike in Nigeria: “But 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, whether it was his Christmas Day strike or, three weeks ago, what we did
in Nigeria. Three weeks ago in Nigeria, and 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.”
He described the alleged operation as the largest such
“neutralisation” since the September 11 attacks: “Now, why is this important?
That is the biggest neutralisation enemy killed in action since September the
11th. One hundred and ninety-nine jihadists who will not harm Americans again.”
It was not immediately clear which specific operation Gorka
was referring to, as US and Nigerian forces have previously conducted joint
missions targeting ISIS-linked and ISWAP militants in the Lake Chad Basin.
Gorka also claimed that a significant amount of electronic
intelligence was recovered during the operation: “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.”
He further argued that Africa has become a key theatre for
counterterrorism due to the spread of extremist groups exploiting instability
and local conflicts, while noting US interest in security partnerships across
the continent.
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