{{Nigeria’s secret police said Wednesday they broke up a terrorist group backed by “Iranian handlers” who wanted to assassinate a former military ruler and gather intelligence about locations frequented by Americans and Israelis.}}<\/p>\n
The State Security Service, responsible for domestic spying in Africa’s most populous nation, offered no details about who actually controlled and bankrolled the group. <\/p>\n
However, it said it had arrested three suspected terrorists, including the group’s leader, before they could launch attacks.<\/p>\n
The leader’s “lieutenants successfully conducted surveillance and gathering relevant data … (for) possible attacks,” secret police spokeswoman Marilyn Ogar said, reading from a statement. <\/p>\n
“He personally took photographs of the Israeli culture center in Ikoyi, Lagos, which he sent to his handlers.”<\/p>\n
The service identified the leader as Abdullahi Mustaphah Berende, a 50-year-old leader of a local Shiite sect in Ilorin. Ogar said Berende was arrested along with two other suspected members, while another remains at large.<\/p>\n
Berende first traveled to Iran in 2006 and studied at an Islamic university, said Ogar. <\/p>\n
He later returned in 2011 and learned how to use Kalashnikov assault rifles and pistols, as well as making and detonating homemade explosives, she said.<\/p>\n
Ogar identified high-level targets of the group as former military ruler Ibrahim Babangida and Ibrahim Dasuki, a former Sultan of Sokoto, a major Islamic leader in the nation. The group also conducted surveillance on USAID, the U.S. Peace Corps and other targets, she said.<\/p>\n
Berende also received some $30,000 in cash to fund the group’s planned operations.<\/p>\n
Ogar did not take questions, nor did she elaborate on the statement. It remains unclear how close the group was to actually making any attack.<\/p>\n
Nigeria, home to more than 160 million people, is largely divided into a Christian south and a Muslim north. Nigeria’s Muslims are predominantly Sunni, though there is a Shiite community in the country. <\/p>\n
Iran has backed Shiite groups in Nigeria in the past.<\/p>\n
Iran has previously been involved in police actions in Nigeria. In 2010, authorities at Lagos’ Apapa Port found a hidden shipment of 107 mm artillery rockets, rifle rounds and other weapons from Iran. <\/p>\n
The shipment was supposedly bound for Gambia. A Nigerian and an Iranian with alleged ties to the country’s Revolutionary Guard face criminal charges over the shipment.<\/p>\n
Agencies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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