02/23/2012 -

Carjacking provides Nigerian jihadists Boko Haram a regular supply of cars for vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs) and helps members of the sect pass through security checkpoints undisturbed. The cars also provide a source of revenue for the group, according to confessions of a recently captured Boko Haram boss.

"We snatch those vehicles at gun point. We use the less exotic ones for suicide bombings and just load vehicles with bombs, drive them near our target, park, get out of it and leave them to explode thereafter," Boko Haram spokesman Abul Qaqa told authorities while in custody. Qaqa wasarrested by the Nigerian State Security Service around February 2. African media reports that Qaqa is a pen name and that his real name has not yet been released.

Boko Haram's name comes from a term meaning "Western education is sinful." The group initially emerged in the early 2000s targeting churches and government buildings. Fundamentally, the group is looselymodeled on Afghanistan's Taliban, Reuters says. Government officials say evidence showslinks between Boko Haram and Al Qaeda.

After a government crackdown, Boko Haram reappeared roughly two years ago and has been responsible for shootings and numerous VBIED attacks in Nigeria, including a bombing campaign in January that left 185 people dead in the northern city of Kano. After the attacks police found10 more vehicles filled with explosives and hundreds of other explosive devices.

Qaqa says exotic cars are stolen for personal use by Boko Haram leaders and later sold to raise funds. He also said more expensive cars were used topose as VIPs to bluff securityagents at checkpoints, AllAfrica.com reports.

Low–expense operations like carjacking continue to give Boko Haram operational success in recent attacks, says Jay Radzinski, intelligence manager atMax-Security Solutions, a geo-political risk consulting firm that focuses on integration intelligence and ground support.

“The use of more expensive cars to deceive authorities is not surprising. The fact that Boko Haram is against material luxury is of little significance when carrying out 'Jihad'. Such militant groups are known to compromise with such 'values' for the betterment of their operational goals. Such behavior makes compromising groups even more difficult to map and target and thus, bringing up the need for the aforementioned tactics,” he said by e-mail on Thursday.

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