Girl suicide bomber, 12, kills 7 in Nigeria

A girl about 12 years old carried out a suicide attack at a bus station in northeastern Nigeria yesterday, killing seven and injuring 31, witnesses said, shortly after officials revealed that Boko Haram Islamists had recaptured a strategic town in the region.

"A girl aged about 12 detonated an explosive under her clothes as she approached the station's perimeter fence," said Danbaba Nguru, a shopkeeper who witnessed the attack in the town of Damaturu.

The head of the local Sani Abacha hospital, doctor Gara Fika, said six bodies and 32 injured had arrived there with one person dying after being admitted.

The Damaturu bus station has been repeatedly targeted in a string of previous suicide attacks.

No claim of responsibility for the attack has been made but Islamist group Boko Haram has frequently used young girls to carry out suicide attacks.

The deputy governor in neighbouring Borno state, Mustapha Zannah, said Friday that he had seen a security report indicating that Boko Haram has recruited several suicide bombers to help counter a regional military operation against them.

And on Saturday Zannah announced the fall of Marte, located on a strategic trading route between Nigeria and neighbouring Cameroon and Chad, to the Islamists.