Nigeria deploys ‘massive’ troops to northeast

Nigeria’s military on Wednesday announced the deployment of “massive” forces to its northeastern border regions after the president declared a state of emergency in the areas where Islamist insurgents have seized territory.

President Goodluck Jonathan issued the emergency decree in a broadcast late Tuesday, acknowledging for the first time that Boko Haram Islamists had “taken over” parts of Borno state, the insurgents’ stronghold.

“Nigerian Armed Forces…have commenced operations to rid the nation’s border territories of terrorist bases,” the military statement said.

“The operations which will involve massive deployment of men and resources is aimed at asserting the nation’s territorial integrity,” it added.

The emergency measures applied to Borno and two neighbouring states, Yobe and Adamawa.

Boko Haram, which says it is fighting to create an Islamic state in Nigeria’s mostly Muslim north, had used Borno’s capital of Maiduguri as a home base, but its fighters have relocated to remote border regions following a crackdown in the city.

The borders with Chad and Niger are porous and analysts say that criminal groups, including weapons dealers, have for years migrated freely between countries.

Nigeria has warned that Boko Haram has increasingly sought ties with like-minded foreign groups, including Al-Qaeda’s north African wing and has gained access in recent months to more powerful weapons, some of which have been brought in through unchecked borders.

Gunmen Kill Five, Rob Bank in Northern Nigeria

Gunmen armed with rocket-propelled grenades attacked a police station and a bank in northern Nigeria, killing three policemen and two civilians, authorities said on Monday, in a region struggling to control an Islamist insurgency. 

The gunmen struck the town of Ringim late on Thursday night, said Abdul Jinjiri, police spokesman for Jigawa state, where the town is located. "After attacking a police station and killing three of our men, they then moved to nearby Unity Bank and killed two civilians there," Jinjiri said. "They were not able to steal any money from the bank."

 The Ringim attack came a day before 25 people were killed in a separate clash between Nigerian security forces and suspected Islamists who robbed a bank and attacked a police station in northeastern Yobe state. Authorities believe Islamist are increasingly targeting banks to fund their operations, as support from local politicians dries up and Sahara-based groups are in disarray after a French military intervention kicked them out of Mali. 

Jinjiri declined to say if the Islamist group Boko Haram, which operates across the north, was suspected of being behind Thursday's clashes. The Boko Haram sect and offshoots such as the al Qaeda-linked Ansaru, as well as associated criminal networks, pose the main threat to stability in Africa's top energy producer.

 Violence in the country's north has shown no signs of letting up. Clashes between Islamists and a multinational force from Nigeria, Niger and Chad killed dozens of people ten days ago. A senator who visited the site said 228 people were killed, but the military puts the figure at 37.

Canadian terror suspects who are accused of planning to derail a train

The first image has emerged of one of the Canadian terror suspects who plotted to derail a New York-bound train as it crossed near the Niagara Falls.

Chiheb Esseghaier, 35, a Ph.D. student studying in Montreal, was seen being led off of a plane in handcuffs after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police flew him to Toronto to appear in court today. His alleged co-conspirator Raed Jaser, 30, was arrested in Toronto on Monday. 

Canadian security authorities say the men were operating with the support and guidance of 'al-Qaeda elements in Iran.' Police have called it the first al-Qaeda-planned terrorist plot in Canada.

Chiheb Esseghaier

Neither man is a Canadian citizen, though both are in the country legally. Essaghaier is a graduate student studying material sciences at the Institute National de la Recherche Scientifique. He is from Tunisia. Jaser is reportedly a Palestinian from the United Arab Emirates.