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LONDON: The imam of a Scottish mosque has described how a neo-Nazi teenager pretended to convert to Islam as a way to carry out a massacre inside.

The boy, 16 years old at the time of the incident, was caught by detectives in January as he traveled to burn down the Inverclyde Muslim Centre in Greenock, Sky News reported on Monday.

He later pleaded guilty under the Terrorism Act at the Glasgow High Court and will be sentenced at a later date.

The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was inspired by Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik and hoped that the mosque, with a capacity of 275 worshippers, would be full during his attack. He had planned to livestream the massacre after becoming radicalized online aged 13.

He told Imam Mohammed Bilal that he intended to become a Muslim. “I gave him the Qur’an to get more knowledge,” Bilal said.

“He told me that he wanted a balanced life. I asked, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘I want (to be) closer to my Creator if I become Muslim.’”

Hamid Akhtar, also from the mosque, said the planned attack had served as a wake-up call for the area’s Muslim community.

“The frightening bit was that somebody was so nice and so conning. Making us a fool that he wanted to convert, and we were helping him in every way and trusting him,” he told Sky News.

“It gives us a lesson in future about who comes in and what their intentions are. We have more security cameras now.”

The boy, who has an autism diagnosis, believed that Europeans are in a “war” against other races. He authored a “manifesto” on his mobile phone and pledged to “die for my land.”

His final manifesto said he would attack when “the mosque will be at its fullest.” But the door to the mosque was locked, and police were waiting to arrest him after being tipped off.

The rucksack he took contained a German air pistol, ball bearings, gas cartridges and four cans of aerosol spray.

A raid of his home uncovered a copy of Adolf Hitler’s book “Mein Kampf,” knives and bomb-making ingredients.

Local Muslim Adeel Naeen told Sky News: “The event is an isolated event, but I look at the community today and you see the number of people that come through the doors, so we are glad that the police were able to stop anything from happening. The community is still strong in terms of it’s not putting people off from gathering here.”

KANO: The Nigerian military killed more than 100 members of a criminal gang in an air and ground raid over the weekend, according to a conflict monitoring report produced for the United Nations and seen by AFP on Monday.
Armed groups called “bandits” by locals have for years been terrorizing communities in northwest and central Nigeria, raiding villages, kidnapping residents for ransom and burning homes after looting them.
The military raid in the restive northwestern state of Zamfara was launched “in the early hours” Sunday in the Bukkuyum local government area, where fighter jets in coordination with ground troops pounded a gathering of more than 400 bandits in their Makakkari forest camp.
The military’s attack “may have occurred in response to consecutive banditry, especially kidnapping, in the state in the previous month,” the report said, noting a link between a recent decrease in military operations in the state and a spate of bandit attacks.
Bukkuyum’s Adabka village was on Friday the scene of a bandit attack that saw residents kidnapped and 13 security personnel killed.
Bandits had been planning an attack on a farming village when “air and ground troops ambushed a bandit camp... killing over 100,” the report said.
A spokesman for the Nigerian army did not respond to an AFP request for comment.
Nigeria’s “banditry” crisis originated in conflict over land and water rights between herders and farmers but has morphed into organized crime, with gangs preying on rural communities that have long had little or no government presence.
Cattle rustling and kidnapping have become huge moneymakers in the largely impoverished countryside.
Groups also levy taxes on farmers and artisanal miners.
The conflict is worsening a malnutrition crisis in the northwest as attacks drive people away from their farms, in a situation that has been complicated by climate change and western aid cuts.
Despite military deployment to fight the criminal gangs since 2015 and the creation of a militia force by the Zamfara state government two years ago, the violence has persisted.
In July, Nigerian troops killed at least 95 members of an armed gang in a shootout and air strikes in the northwest state of Niger.
But the military is overstretched, with banditry spreading out of its northwestern heartland into central Nigeria.
Bandits, who are primarily motivated by money, have also increased their cooperation with Nigeria’s jihadist groups, who are waging a separate, 16-year-old armed insurrection in the northeast.