Suicide Bomber Kills 2 in Northeast Nigerian City

A suicide bomber detonated explosives Monday on the edge of a religious procession by the moderate Muslim Brotherhood in the northeastern Nigerian state capital of Potiskum, killing himself and two civilians, witnesses said.

Muslim Brotherhood members detained two suspects near the explosion and refused to hand them over to the military, said Mohammed Adamu, a tailor who was part of the parade in the streets.

As the crowd began beating the suspects with fists and wooden clubs, soldiers fired several shots into the air and one bullet killed a Muslim Brotherhood member, Adamu said.

One suspect turned out to be a policeman and the crowd finally handed both suspects over to the police. An AP reporter saw both badly beaten men at the hospital, along with about 25 people injured in the blast, mainly women and children.

It is the first attack in months in Potiskum, capital of Yobe state, by suspected members of the Islamic extremist Boko Haram group, which follows the strict Wahabi school of Islam.

In July, extremists killed four Sunni Muslims in an attack on a mosque in Potiskum.

Boko Haram recently has been seizing towns and villages in neighboring Borno and Adamawa states, hoisting the black-and-white flag of al-Qaida and declaring an Islamic caliphate in a large area bordering Cameroon.

Nigeria's military announced that Boko Haram had agreed to an immediate ceasefire on Oct. 17 and government officials said they expected more than 200 kidnapped schoolgirls to be released quickly as a result.

But the fighting and abductions have continued unabated and Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said in a video released Friday that he had never agreed to a truce.

He dashed hopes for the speedy release of the girls, abducted from a boarding school in northeastern Chibok town in April, saying they had all converted to Islam and been married off.