Nigeria took part in an international operation aimed at fighting terrorism. This operation used artificial intelligence to find 126 foreign terrorist fighters among over 108,000 facial images from jihadist content online.
The operation, called “Operation Shams II”, was organized by INTERPOL. It took place in Tunis, Tunisia, from June 1 to June 5, 2026.
INTERPOL shared details in a statement on its website on Friday. It said 28 specialized officers and experts from 11 countries joined forces. The countries included Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Iraq, Kenya, Malaysia, the Philippines, Qatar, Tajikistan, Tunisia, and Uzbekistan.
The goal of the operation was to disrupt terrorist networks and their financing online. Law enforcement officers collected 108,076 facial images from content published by jihadist groups during the five days.
Artificial intelligence helped automate parts of the data collection. This included removing duplicate images and checking their quality. The technology narrowed down the images to 6,362 unique, high-quality facial images. These images were then processed through INTERPOL’s facial recognition system.
INTERPOL made it clear that trained officers and analysts reviewed the AI-generated results. This was in line with their rules for processing data. Additional intelligence came from Iraq, providing hundreds of images linked to terrorism suspects.
“To date, 126 Foreign Terrorist Fighters have been identified from the images processed during Operation Shams II,” INTERPOL said.
The matches will add to existing intelligence on the suspects. This includes information about their possible locations and social networks. The data is now being added to INTERPOL’s databases. This will help in tracking and stopping terrorist suspects from moving across borders.
“These matches will enrich existing intelligence on suspects, including potential locations and social networks. The data is now being integrated into INTERPOL’s databases, reinforcing global efforts to detect, track and disrupt terrorist movements worldwide,” the statement said.
INTERPOL also mentioned that leads generated during the operation are already being used in judicial cases. This includes a case involving two suspected foreign terrorist fighters who are currently detained.
They noted that thousands of images are still to be processed. These might provide more leads for investigations. Apart from facial recognition, the operation also used tools to trace cryptocurrency.
INTERPOL said the financial investigation “Employed advanced cryptocurrency tools to trace illicit funding. This led to three urgent requests to a Virtual Asset Service Provider to disclose customer data, aimed at disrupting terrorist financing flows.”
Countries involved also talked to representatives from the online gaming industry. They discussed concerns about young people becoming radicalized online.
INTERPOL’s Director of Counter-Terrorism, María Carmen Muñoz González, highlighted the operation's success. She said it showed the potential of combining international police cooperation with AI analysis.
“The success of Operation Shams II demonstrates the value of combining international law enforcement cooperation with responsible AI-assisted analytical capabilities,” she said.
She added that this model could help with future international law enforcement operations against criminal networks. Operation Shams II was part of the CT TECH+ Project, funded by the European Union’s Foreign Policy Instruments and supported by the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism.
INTERPOL stated that this operation was the first of its kind to use AI-assisted methods on such a large scale to process terrorist-related visual content and generate investigative leads.
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