3 Iran-linked terror suspects arrested in Nigeria

Nigeria’s State Security Service, SSS, today announced the arrest of three persons suspected of being members of an Iran-linked terror cell planning attacks on U.S. and Israeli interests in Lagos, the commercial capital.

The group is led by a local Shiite leader from the central Nigerian city of Ilorin, who received training in Iran in armed combat and the use of improvised explosive devices, said Marilyn Ogar, spokeswoman of the state security unit also known as the Department of State Services.

The group was said to be planning attacks on the Lagos offices of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Haifa-based ZIM Integrated Shipping Services Ltd. and the Jewish Cultural Center, she said without giving further details.

A fourth member of the group is now at large, according to Ogar.

Deborah MacLean, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Abuja, said she had no information on the allegations when contacted by Bloomberg. Phone calls made after office hours to a number listed for the Israeli Embassy in Abuja went unanswered. Phone numbers listed for the Iranian Embassy in Abuja didn’t connect, according to report by Bloomberg.