Police: Three Girls behind Nigeria Suicide Bombings
Three girls carried out suicide bombings in the northeastern Nigerian city of Damaturu on Friday, killing 13 people celebrating the end of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, police said.
"Thirteen people were killed in the... suicide blasts," said Markus Danladi, Yobe state police commissioner. "The attacks were carried out by three underage girls. Fifteen people were also injured in the attacks."
Boko Haram Islamists have carried out a slew of deadly assaults in northeast Nigeria over the course of their six-year-old insurgency. Over the past year the group has deployed several female suicide bombers.
Residents said twin explosions near a prayer ground in Damaturu killed two people, with a third blast moments later near a mosque leaving another 11 people dead, according to medics.
This year's Ramadan has been particularly deadly, with suicide bombers hitting mosques and worshippers attacked by gunmen as they prayed.
A medical source who wished to remain anonymous told AFP that 13 bodies had been brought to the hospital.
Damaturu is the capital of Yobe, one of three northeastern states hardest hit by the insurgency that has left 15,000 people dead and 1.5 million homeless since 2009.
On Thursday, rescue workers said at least 49 people were killed and dozens injured when twin blasts struck a market in the northeast Nigerian city of Gombe.
The first explosion took place outside a packed footwear shop around 1620 GMT, followed by a second explosion just minutes later, said Badamasi Amin, a local trader who counted at least three bodies.
He said the area at the time was crowded with customers doing some last-minute shopping on the eve of the Eid festival marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
"I was about 70 meters (yards) from the scene" when the first blast hit, Amin told AFP.
"I and many other people rushed to assist the victims. While we were trying to attend to the wounded, another blast happened outside a china shop just opposite the footwear shop," he said, adding that he himself was "drenched in blood" from moving dead bodies.
Ali Nasiru, another trader, said he saw "people lying lifeless on the ground".
"Traders and shoppers helped in evacuating the victims to the hospital," he said.
"In all, we have 49 dead and 71 injured," a top rescue official told AFP, asking not to be named.
He warned that the toll could climb further as some of the wounded "are in a critical condition".
"The victims include many women and children," he said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blasts but a market, bus station and stadium in the city of Gombe, the capital of Gombe state, have all in recent months been targeted by bomb and suicide attacks.
Source: Agence France Presse
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