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Twin Blasts Hit Market in Northeast Nigeria


Two explosions ripped through a market in the northeastern Nigeria Sunday, the second attack is as many days using young girls strapped with explosives.

The blasts struck within minutes of each other at a crowded mobile phone market in the town of Potiskum in Yobe state.

Security officials say at least five people were killed in the attack, including the two bombers. Twenty-one others were injured.

The blast comes a day after a bomb strapped to a girl, believed to be just 10 years old, detonated at a crowded market in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, killing at least 19 people and injuring 20 others.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Maiduguri - the capital of Borno state - lies in the heartland of an insurgency by the Sunni Muslim militant group Boko Haram.

On Saturday in Potiskum, a car bomb exploded outside a police station in the city killing two people.

The latest attacks came a week after Boko Haram militants seized control of the town of Baga in northern Borno state after intense battles with Nigerian soldiers.

Officials say the militants have since burned down much of Baga and surrounding villages, prompting thousands of people to flee to Maiduguri or to islands in Lake Chad.

Estimates of the number of civilians killed in the past week range from several hundred up to 2,000. Boko Haram has been blamed for violence that killed thousands of people during the past five years.

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