NIGERIA, 10 OTHERS USE AI TO IDENTIFY 126 SUSPECTED TERRORISTS FROM 108,000 IMAGES
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By Aishat Momoh. O.
Nigeria was among 11 countries that participated in an international counter-terrorism operation that used artificial intelligence to identify 126 suspected foreign terrorist fighters from more than 108,000 facial images extracted from jihadist content online.
The operation, codenamed “Operation Shams II,” was coordinated by the International Criminal Police Organisation, INTERPOL, and held in Tunis, Tunisia, from June 1 to 5, 2026.
According to INTERPOL in a statement published on its official website on Friday, 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 international police organisation said the operation was aimed at disrupting terrorist networks and their financing in the digital domain.
It said law enforcement officers extracted 108,076 facial images from visual content published by jihadist groups during the five-day operation.
Artificial intelligence agents and AI-generated scripts were subsequently used to automate parts of the data collection and investigative process, including removing duplicate images and assessing image quality.
The technology reduced the dataset to 6,362 unique, high-quality facial images, which were then processed through INTERPOL’s facial recognition system.
INTERPOL stressed that the AI-generated results were reviewed and verified by trained officers and analysts in accordance with its rules governing the processing of data.
The organisation said additional intelligence provided by its National Central Bureau in Baghdad, Iraq, included 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.
It said the matches would enrich existing intelligence on the suspects, including information about their potential locations and social networks.
The data is now being integrated into INTERPOL’s databases to support efforts to detect, track and disrupt the cross-border movement of terrorist suspects.
Investigative leads generated during the operation were also being used to support judicial proceedings in participating countries, including a case involving two suspected foreign terrorist fighters who are currently in detention.
INTERPOL added that thousands of additional images remained to be processed and could generate further investigative leads.
Beyond facial recognition, the operation also deployed cryptocurrency-tracing tools to investigate terrorist financing.
According to INTERPOL, the financial investigation used cryptocurrency tools to trace illicit funding, resulting in three urgent requests to a Virtual Asset Service Provider for customer data aimed at disrupting terrorist financing flows.
The participating countries also engaged representatives of the online gaming industry over concerns surrounding youth radicalisation in digital environments.
INTERPOL Director of Counter-Terrorism, María Carmen Muñoz González, said the operation demonstrated the potential of combining international police cooperation with responsible AI-assisted analysis.
“The success of Operation Shams II demonstrates the value of combining international law enforcement cooperation with responsible AI-assisted analytical capabilities,” she said.
Muñoz González added that the operational model could serve as a basis for future international law enforcement operations targeting criminal networks.
Operation Shams II was conducted under the CT TECH+ Project, funded by the European Union’s Foreign Policy Instruments and supported by the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism.
INTERPOL described the operation as the first of its kind to deploy AI-assisted capabilities at such a scale to process terrorist-related visual content and generate investigative leads.
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