Nigerian troops on Thursday captured the spiritual leader of the Islamist extremist sect behind an uprising in four northern states that left hundreds dead, army sources said.Mohammed Yusuf, 39, was seized in a hideout near his house after an assault on his headquarters by Nigerian security forces killed around 200 of his followers, said an army officer.
"The leader of the Talibans had been captured by the military who raided a house where he was hiding, close to his former residence that was destroyed" in the assault, the officer told reporters in the Borno state capital Maiduguri.
He added that the sect leader had been holed up in his father-in-law's house in the suburbs of this northeastern city, which has become a stronghold of the self-styled Taliban sect.
"Following a tip-off, the military personnel stormed the house where he was taking refuge and arrested him," said the military officer.
Yusuf was taken to a military barracks in Maiduguri and later transferred to the federal capital Abuja, sources said.
A drop-out from a Saudi Arabian Ismalic university where he was studying theology, Yusuf was taken into custody last November on unspecified charges, but released on bail in January.
