Twin blasts hit Nigerian market bombed last week

Reporting from BAUCHI, Nigeria — Witnesses and police say twin blasts exploded Monday in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri, striking a crowded market where two female suicide bombers killed 70 people a week ago.

Trader Bala Dauda, who was at the scene, said he saw victims dripping with blood and people missing limbs. Rescue workers were evacuating the dead and wounded, he said.

Police spokesman Gideon Jubrin said it was too early to estimate a death toll.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but people blamed Boko Haram, the Islamic extremist group that has carried out many such attacks in a five-year insurgency that has killed thousands.

Also Monday, suspected Boko Haram fighters launched a pre-dawn attack on Damaturu, the Yobe state capital 85 miles west of Maiduguri. Nigeria’s military said a fighter jet was repelling the attackers.