Kimmi Ascanio broke a late tie and the San Diego Wave beat the Washington Spirit 2-1 on Friday night to take the top spot in the NWSL standings.
In other games Friday night; Gotham FC beat Seattle 2-0; Kansas City topped Houston 3-0, and Boston and Bay FC tied 1-1.
In the 89th minute, Kenza Dali’s corner kick delivery found Ascanio for a header for the Wave (7-3-0). The Spirit (5-2-3) had won five in a row.
Trinity Byars scored her first professional goal to put the Wave ahead in the seventh minute. Rebeca Bernal tied it in the 33rd.
Jaedyn Shaw scored for the third straight game to lead Gotham FC to a 2-0 win over Seattle.
Shaw opened up the scoring in the 24th minute off an assist from Savannah McCaskill. Off a recycled corner kick, Tierna Davidson would double the lead in the 57th minute.
Goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger made two saves en route to her seventh clean sheet of the season, the most in the NWSL.
Seattle (3-4-2) hasn't scored in 499 minutes and is winless in five games.
Forward Temwa Chawinga scored her fourth and fifth goals of the season, leading the Current (5-4-1) to a 3-0 victory over Houston.
Lorena made five saves for her second consecutive shutout for KC (5-4-1). The Dash (3-5-1) are winless in five games.
Boston overcame an early red card to salvage the tie, with the Legacy now 2-5-3 and Bay FC 3-3-2.
In the 42nd minute, Boston defender Bianca St-Georges received her second red card of the season for violent conduct on Claire Hutton.
Bay FC took advantage with Dorian Bailey left-footed strike in the 50th minute. Amanda Gutierres tied it on a penalty kick in the 64th.
Seattle Reign FC forward Mia Fishel goes up for a header against Washington Spirit defender Esme Morgan (24) during the second half of an NWSL soccer match, Sunday, May 10, 2026, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. and Nigerian forces killed a leader of the Islamic State group in Nigeria in a mission carried out Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump said.
Trump announced the joint operation in Africa’s most populous country in a late-night social media post that offered few details. He said Abu Bakr al-Mainuki was second in command of the Islamic State group globally and “thought he could hide in Africa, but little did he know we had sources who kept us informed on what he was doing.”
Al-Mainuki was viewed as the key figure in IS organizing and finance, and had been plotting attacks against the United States and its interests, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share sensitive information.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu confirmed the operation and said Al-Mainuki was killed alongside “several of his lieutenants, during a strike on his compound in the Lake Chad Basin."
Born in Nigeria's Borno province in 1982, al-Mainuki took the helm of the IS branch in West Africa after the group’s previous leader in the region, Mamman Nur, was killed in 2018, according to the Counter Extremism Project, which tracks militant groups.
Al-Mainuki was based in the Sahel area, the monitoring group said, adding that it is believed that he fought in Libya when IS was active in the North African nation more than a decade ago. He was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2023.
Trump, in his social media announcement, said Al-Mainuki was “second in command globally,” hiding in Africa, a claim that analysts say is off the mark.
They say Al-Mainuki was the deputy to Abu Musab al-Barnawi, the leader of the Islamic State West African Province who was reported to have died in 2021. He is regarded as one of the central proponents of the formation of ISWAP after its split with Boko Haram in 2016.
“If confirmed, the killing of Al-Mainuki is huge because this is the first time a security agency has killed someone this high in the ranking of ISWAP,” Malik Samuel, a senior researcher at Good Governance Africa who specializes in insurgent groups in Nigeria, said.
“The potential to cause chaos within the group is also there because the operation must have been carried out in the heart of ISWAP’s fortified base, which is very difficult to access.”
Trump in December directed U.S. forces to launch strikes against the Islamic State group in Nigeria, though he released little detail then about the impact.
The Nigerian military said the operation was a result of its “recently formed U.S.-Nigeria partnership and intelligence sharing efforts.” Samalia Uba, the military spokesperson, said in a statement that the operation has also “disrupted a violent terrorist network that endangered Nigeria and the broader West African region.”
Nigeria has been battling multiple armed groups, including at least two affiliated with IS, as it has grappled with a multifaceted security crisis. IS affiliates in Africa have emerged as some of the continent's most active militant groups following the collapse of the IS caliphate in Syria and Iraq in 2017.
The U.S. in February sent troops to the West African nation to help advise its military and in March, the U.S. also deployed drones there after Trump alleged that Christians are being targeted in Nigeria’s security crisis.
The Friday night operation was the latest instance in a string of covert missions abroad that Trump has announced this year, starting with the stunning overnight raid in January to capture and remove Venezuela's then-leader Nicolás Maduro and whisk him to the U.S., followed nearly two months later by the launch of strikes that kicked off the war with Iran.
Adetayo reported from Lagos, Nigeria. Associated Press writers Konstantin Toropin in Washington and Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report.
FILE -Nigerian President Bola Tinubu speaks to the media ahead of his meeting with Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer inside 10 Downing Street in London, Thursday, March 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, Pool, File)
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One, Friday, May 15, 2026, as he returns from a trip to Beijing, China. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
