Niger Police Arrest Man in Suspected Terror plot

Niger police arrested a man on suspicion of planning two terror attacks against strategic sites in the capital Niamey, the justice minister told Agence France Presse on Thursday.

"If these attacks had been carried out it would have been dramatic," the minister said, adding that security had been reinforced around the areas that had been targeted.

The minister, Marou Amadou, named the male suspect as Beidari Moulid. He did not give details about the date or circumstances of the arrest, nor the age or nationality of Moulid.

He said Moulid had tried to transfer the plans of his attacks to Mali on a portable memory device hidden in a pair of trousers, but Niger authorities seized the memory card in a Mali-bound bus.

The suspect was in contact with Cheibane Ould Hama, a Malian who had been serving time for gunning down a Pentagon official and four Saudi nationals but escaped from a Niamey prison in June.

The investigation into Moulid led police to Cheibane, the minister said. French special forces arrested the fugitive in northern Mali on Tuesday.

Tensions in Niger were raised by twin suicide bombings on May 23 in the north, targeting an army base in Agadez and a uranium mine at Arlit run by French nuclear giant Areva. More than 20 people were killed.