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Nigeria 'mastermind' of Europeans' kidnap dies: police

By Ola Awoniyi
Nigeria People try to find their way into the building where a failed rescue operation of a pair of hostages took place.  By Emmanuel Arewa AFP
MAR 14, 2012 LISTEN
People try to find their way into the building where a failed rescue operation of a pair of hostages took place. By Emmanuel Arewa (AFP)

ABUJA (AFP) - The alleged Nigerian mastermind of the kidnapping of a Briton and an Italian killed last week amid a rescue attempt has died of gunshot wounds sustained during his arrest, police said Wednesday.

Abu Mohammed, was wounded and detained in a March 7 raid in the town of Zaria -- one day before the British-Nigerian rescue attempt of the two European men, who had been in captivity for almost one year -- police said.

Mohammed died on March 9, the day after the failed hostage rescue in the northwestern city of Sokoto, of "severe bullet wounds sustained" during his arrest, Nigeria's secret police said in a statement.

Police also blamed militant Islamist sect Boko Haram for kidnapping the foreigners, saying that "investigations revealed that the plot was masterminded by the Abu Mohammed-led faction of Boko Haram in Nigeria".

The Islamist group has carried out scores of bombings and shootings in Nigeria, but had not been previously known to conduct kidnappings.

The initial police raid yielded information on the hostages' whereabouts -- but it also imperiled them because one extremist escaped and apparently alerted the guards, the statement said.

The police statement said the hostage-takers killed the foreigners "before the arrival of security forces".

"Preliminary interrogations of the arrested suspects revealed that the guards protecting the two foreign hostages in Sokoto had been directed to kill them in the event of any envisaged threat," it said.

The statement added that the suspects arrested in the initial raid "therefore advised that a rescue operation be immediately initiated, moreso as one of them had escaped during the Zaria raid".

It said the hostage guards were unable to flee because security agents had already blanketed the area, and that a gun battle broke out when security forces arrived at the building.

During the gun battle, it said, "three of the guards were killed while the wife of one of them sustained bullet wounds and was rushed to the hospital".

"No lives were lost on the part of security forces, though some service personnel sustained gunshot injuries."

Police said six people were arrested over the kidnapping, including Mohammed. The statement also spoke of the arrests of three other suspects who had "conducted surveillance on the victims before their abduction".

The failed rescue mission, authorised by British Prime Minister David Cameron, sparked a diplomatic row between London and Rome, which complained that it had not been consulted about the operation beforehand.

Nigeria's government and security agencies have also come under heavy pressure over the hostages' deaths, and many have expressed doubts over their claim that Boko Haram was behind the kidnapping.

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