Nigerian police arrest Al-Qaeda suspects

NIGERIA, Nigeria's secret police have arrested several people suspected of links to the Al-Qaeda network in three of the country's predominantly Muslim states, a spokesman said Monday.

"Our operatives arrested the suspects in Kano, Kaduna and Yobe states in connection with the threat of terrorism," State Security Service spokesman Ado Muazu told AFP, adding that the suspects had a "link to Al-Qaeda groups".

He said they also had links to a group known as the Nigerian Taleban. This Islamic extremist movement first emerged in 2002 calling for a stricter implementation of Islamic Sharia law in the 12 states of northern Nigeria that apply it.

Since then it has launched attacks on targets symbolizing the Nigerian government, most notably on police stations.

In the most recent of these attacks, the group, which is not known to have any connection to the Taliban in Afghanistan, earlier this year razed a police station in the northern city of Kano, killing around one dozen people.

Muazu said the suspects were all Nigerians but declined to disclose how many were arrested or what they were allegedly planning.

A security source who declined to be named said at least some of the men arrested were in their twenties.

SSS Director General Afakriya Gadzama told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that 10 people were arrested in all and three of them had been found to be fully involved in a planned attack in the country.

He said the remaining seven suspects were being screened to ascertain their level of involvement.

Gadzama was further quoted as saying the suspects, who come from Kano, Yobe and Borno states, also had links to "an Asian country, currently in turmoil". He was not more specific.

The unidentified security source said two of the men at least had travelled to Algeria and to "many countries in the Middle East with a reputation for terrorism".

Gadzama said the suspects were arrested with some bags of fertiliser and firearms when their hideout was raided.

"We will arraign them as soon as investigation .. is concluded this week," NAN quoted him as saying.

He did not say where they would be arraigned but another security source said it would be in Abuja.

Nigeria has never had an Al-Qaeda style attack but since the population is roughly half Muslim and since the country is home to various armed groups, US officials tend to see the country as being at risk of such activity.

Abuja, Tuesday, AFP