Nigerian rebels threaten oil wells after warlord detained

[tocqueville]

Wed Sep 21, 2:44 PM ET

LAGOS (AFP) - Nigerian separatist militants warned foreign oil workers to flee the Niger Delta as they launched an operation to retaliate for the arrest of their leader by attacking wells and pipelines.

Rebel leaders said fighters were moving out of the southern oil city of Port Harcourt to bases in the surrounding mangrove swamps in order to arm themselves and begin what they dubbed "240 hours of rage" against security forces and the oil industry.

Police had earlier ignored a rebel demand that they release the leader of the banned Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo Asari, who was "invited for questioning" on suspicion of treason after he publicly vowed to destroy the Nigerian state.

Following a night when gunfire was heard on the streets of Port Harcourt, deputy NDPVF commander Alali Horsefall declared: "Since we cannot get in touch with him, we are going to the mangrove. We can start operations now. We have camps there. We have machetes, cutlasses, knives."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050921/bs_afp/nigeriaunrest