AFP, Washington

Thirteen men, including members of two right-wing militias, have been arrested for plotting to kidnap the Democratic governor of the US state of Michigan and “instigate a civil war”, officials said Thursday.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer thanked law enforcement for thwarting the kidnap plot and rebuked President Donald Trump for failing to condemn hate groups.

Announcing the arrests, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel described the conspiracy to kidnap the 49-year-old Whitmer as a “serious and credible threat.”

Andrew Birge, US attorney for the western district of Michigan, said six men were facing federal charges for conspiring to kidnap Whitmer from her vacation home. Birge said they had conducted surveillance of her residence and even tested a home-made bomb they intended to use to divert law enforcement away from her home.

Trump has repeatedly attacked Whitmer over her tough coronavirus lockdown, and armed right-wing groups have staged protests against her in the state capital Lansing.

Whitmer pointed to Trump’s refusal at the recent debate with Democrat Joe Biden to condemn white supremacists and “hate groups” like the two Michigan militias that allegedly targeted her.

“Stand back and stand by, he told them,” she said. “Hate groups heard the president’s words not as a rebuke but as a rallying cry, as a call to action,” she added.

Biden also sought to pin some blame on the Republican president. He said that Trump “is giving oxygen to the bigotry and hate we see on the march in our country. We have to stop it.”

Attorney general Nessel said that seven members of a militia group called the Wolverine Watchmen were also facing state charges. They are suspected of attempting to identify the home addresses of law enforcement officers in order to target them and “instigate a civil war,” Nessel said.