Bomb Blast, Shootout Hits Violence-Torn Nigerian City

Attackers used explosives and gunfire to target an army patrol near a wedding in violence-torn northeastern Nigeria, killing at least three civilians, the military said Sunday.

The incident on Saturday, Nigeria's Independence Day, occurred in Maiduguri, hit by scores of attacks blamed on an Islamist sect known as Boko Haram, which also claimed an August bombing of U.N. headquarters in the capital Abuja.

"There was a bomb and gun attack on one of our patrol teams yesterday," said Lieutenant Colonel Hassan Mohammed, adding that three civilians were killed.

Residents previously reported finding two dead bodies after the bomb blast and an exchange of gunfire between soldiers and attackers. It was unclear whether they were killed by the bomb or gunfire.

Those attending a nearby wedding took cover when the violence broke out. Two residents said those killed were not part of the wedding party.

In a separate incident, a butcher and his assistant were shot dead by gunmen in Maiduguri on Saturday, Mohammed said.

It appeared to have been a targeted killing as nothing was stolen and no one else in the area was attacked, he said.

"Some gunmen stormed a market in the Baga Road area of the city and made threats to a stall run by a butcher," he said. "They shot him and his assistant dead."

Thousands have fled Maiduguri in recent months for fear of further violence. Dozens of similar bomb blasts have hit the city as well as assassinations blamed on Boko Haram.

While most of its attacks have occurred in Nigeria's northeast, Boko Haram also claimed responsibility for the August 26 bomb blast at U.N. headquarters in Abuja that killed at least 23 people.