Three police officers were killed in a bomb blast during a vehicle search
\nat a checkpoint outside the northeast Nigerian city of Damaturu on Monday,
\npolice and a witness said.<\/p>\n
Yobe state police spokesman Toyin Gbadegesin told AFP initially that two
\nofficers were among eight people who died, including two bombers.<\/p>\n
But he later said: \u201cMore investigations as to the circumstances of the
\nincident have revealed that all the other five people, including a woman,
\nwere in the car that exploded.<\/p>\n
\u201cThree policemen were killed in the blast,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The explosion happened at about 1:00 pm (1200 GMT) to the north of the
\ncity, which is the capital of Yobe state, on the main road to Maiduguri in
\nneighbouring Borno state.<\/p>\n
\u201cA police highway patrol team was searching vehicles just outside the city
\nand an SUV with a foreign number (plate) arrived at the spot,\u201d said
\nwitness Umar Goni.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe police were uncomfortable, so they decided to search the vehicle.
\nWhile the search was going on, another SUV arrived. It was stopped for the
\nsame search.\u201d<\/p>\n
The second car exploded during the search, he added.<\/p>\n
A reporter with state-run Yobe Television, who was at the scene shortly
\nafter the blast, said a handbag belonging to the woman in the car was
\nfound and some explosives were recovered and defused.
\nGbadegesin confirmed his account.<\/p>\n
It was not immediately clear whether the checkpoint was the target but
\nBoko Haram Islamists have hit police stop and search points in the past.<\/p>\n
Damaturu has also been repeatedly attacked during the six-year insurgency,
\nmost recently last Friday, when explosives strapped to three girls
\nexploded near a Muslim prayer ground and a mosque.
\nThirteen people were killed.<\/p>\n
The latest deaths take the number of people killed this month alone to
\nnearly 500, and nearly 760 since Muhammadu Buhari became president on May
\n29, according to an AFP count.<\/p>\n
Buhari, who flew to Washington on Sunday for talks with US President
\nBarack Obama on greater US help in defeating the militants, has vowed to
\ncrush the rebels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Three police officers were killed in a bomb blast during a vehicle search at a checkpoint outside the northeast Nigerian city of Damaturu on Monday, police and a witness said.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n