Nigeria Joins INTERPOL’s AI-Assisted Operation That Identified 126 Suspected Foreign Terrorist Fighters

By: Ganiyu Olayinka

Nigeria was one of 11 countries that took part in an INTERPOL-coordinated counter-terrorism operation that used artificial intelligence to help identify 126 suspected foreign terrorist fighters. The suspects were matched from facial images taken from jihadist online content.

The exercise, code-named Operation Shams II, ran from June 1 to 5, 2026, in Tunis, Tunisia. INTERPOL detailed the results in a statement published on its website on Friday.

It said the operation brought together 28 specialised officers and experts from Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Iraq, Kenya, Malaysia, the Philippines, Qatar, Tajikistan, Tunisia and Uzbekistan. The aim was to disrupt terrorist networks and their sources of funding in the digital space.

How the operation worked

Over the five days, officers pulled 108,076 facial images from visual content published by jihadist groups. AI agents and AI-generated scripts then automated parts of the collection and investigation, including removing duplicate images and checking image quality. This narrowed the pool to 6,362 unique, high-quality images, which were run through INTERPOL’s facial recognition system.

INTERPOL stressed that the AI output was not taken at face value. Trained officers and analysts reviewed and verified all results in line with the organisation’s rules on data processing. Its National Central Bureau in Baghdad also supplied hundreds of additional images linked to terrorism suspects.

Results so far

INTERPOL said 126 foreign terrorist fighters had been identified from the images processed to date. The matches will add to existing intelligence on the suspects, including their possible locations and social networks. The data is being fed into INTERPOL’s databases to help detect, track and disrupt suspects moving across borders.

Some leads are already supporting court proceedings in participating countries, including a case involving two suspected fighters currently in detention. Thousands of images remain to be processed and could produce further leads.

Financing and online radicalisation

The operation also used cryptocurrency-tracing tools to investigate terrorist financing. This led to three urgent requests to a virtual asset service provider for customer data. Participating countries also met representatives of the online gaming industry to discuss youth radicalisation in digital spaces.

INTERPOL’s Director of Counterterrorism, María Carmen Muñoz González, said the operation showed the value of combining international police cooperation with responsible AI-assisted analysis. She added that the approach could serve as a model for future operations against criminal networks worldwide.

Operation Shams II was carried out under the CT TECH+ Project, funded by the European Union’s Foreign Policy Instruments and supported by the United Nations Office of Counterterrorism. INTERPOL described it as the first operation to use AI-assisted tools at this scale to process terrorist-related visual content and generate investigative leads.