Nigerian bomb wounds soldier, two police

KANO, Nigeria — A bomb blast injured a soldier and two policemen on patrol in northeast Nigeria on Tuesday, the military said, amid a wave of attacks blamed on Islamist militants.

"The bomb which was planted by the roadside exploded when the patrol van drove over it," Colonel Victor Ebhaleme, operations commander for a military-police task force, said of the blast in the violence-torn city of Maiduguri.

"One soldier and two policemen driving in the van were injured. We have made six arrests of people we suspect of complicity in the attack."

Nigeria's north has been hit by almost daily bomb blasts and shootings in recent weeks blamed on an Islamist sect known as Boko Haram.

Hundreds of troops have been deployed to Maiduguri, where most of the attacks have occurred, but they have been accused of shooting civilians and burning houses after accusing residents of cooperating with the militants.

The military denies the accusations, but a group of elders from the area have called for the troops to be withdrawn.

Tuesday's bomb blast came as British Prime Minister David Cameron visited Nigeria's economic capital Lagos on the opposite end of the vast country.

The attack occurred near the scene of a similar blast last week.



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