Three Police Killed in NE Nigeria Bomb Blast

Three police officers were killed in a bomb blast during a vehicle search at a checkpoint outside the northeast Nigerian city of Damaturu on Monday, police and a witness said,

Yobe state police spokesman Toyin Gbadegesin told AFP initially that two officers were among eight people who died, including two bombers.

But he later said: "More investigations as to the circumstances of the incident have revealed that all the other five people, including a woman, were in the car that exploded.

"Three policemen were killed in the blast," he added.

The explosion happened at about 1:00 pm (1200 GMT) to the north of the city, which is the capital of Yobe state, on the main road to Maiduguri in neighboring Borno state.

"A police highway patrol team was searching vehicles just outside the city and an SUV with a foreign number (plate) arrived at the spot," said witness Umar Goni.

"The police were uncomfortable, so they decided to search the vehicle. While the search was going on, another SUV arrived. It was stopped for the same search."

The second car exploded during the search, he added.

A reporter with state-run Yobe Television, who was at the scene shortly after the blast, said a handbag belonging to the woman in the car was found and some explosives were recovered and defused.

Gbadegesin confirmed his account.

It was not immediately clear whether the checkpoint was the target but Boko Haram Islamists have hit police stop and search points in the past.

Damaturu has also been repeatedly attacked during the six-year insurgency, most recently last Friday, when explosives strapped to three girls exploded near a Muslim prayer ground and a mosque.

Thirteen people were killed.

The latest deaths take the number of people killed this month alone to nearly 500, and nearly 760 since Muhammadu Buhari became president on May 29, according to an AFP count.

Buhari, who flew to Washington on Sunday for talks with U.S. President Barack Obama on greater US help in defeating the militants, has vowed to crush the rebels.