Nigerian Government Kills Mastermind of Anti-Christian Attack

May 2, 2012

Nigerian forces raided an Islamist base in Kano on Tuesday, killing the suspected mastermind of an attack on Christian worshippers on a university campus on Sunday, Reuters reports. The raid followed a series of recent attacks believed to be by the Islamist sect Boko Haram, which have targeted authorities, security forces and northern Nigeria's Christian minority. "Our men just raided one of the hideouts of the elements ... where we discovered explosives and weapons," said Lieutenant Iweha Ikedichi of the Joint Task Force in Kano. "The main suspect has been killed," he said, referring to the suspected mastermind of the attack in which gunmen rode on motorcycles onto a university campus and shot for several hours at Christians using a lecture theater for worship. That attack and another one later the same day against a church in Maiduguri killed a total of 21 people. "The most difficult task we face with these terrorists is they know us but we don't know them," Kano army commander Brigadier General Ilyasu Abba said. "They're not rooted in a particular place. We have rooted them out of here today, but tomorrow they could be somewhere else."