Teenage girl suspected as dozens die in Nigeria suicide attack
A teenage girl carried out a suicide bombing Tuesday at a crowded market in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri, killing at least 34 people, witnesses said.
The blast occurred late afternoon in the market near the Old Elkanemi Cinema, said Musa Danbaba, a member of a civilian protection militia. He said 34 bodies were counted and many more were wounded.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, but it bears the hallmarks of Nigeria’s Islamic extremist group, Boko Haram. It would not be the first time that a teenage girl was used to carry out a suicide attack.
Nor was it the first attack on the Maiduguri market. Suicide bombers detonated explosives there Saturday, killing 54 people.
Boko Haram is waging a nearly six-year insurgency to impose sharia, or Islamic law, in Nigeria. Violence by Boko Haram left an estimated 10,000 people dead last year, according to the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations.
Last week Boko Haram announced its allegiance to the Islamic State, the militant group operating in Iraq and Syria.
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